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A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 




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A PRINCESS 
OF ADVENTURE 

MARIE CAROLINE, DUCHESSE DE BERRY 






BY 



H. NOEL WILLIAMS 

AUTHOR OF "FIVE FAIR SISTERS " 



WITH SEVENTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1911 






7 <?f3$*i_ 



TO MY WIFE 



PREFACE 

THE nineteenth century, so fertile in interesting feminine 
personalities, contains no more romantic figure than 
that of Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. Few prin- 
cesses have experienced such strange vicissitudes, and 
few have faced misfortune and danger with so much courage and 
sang-froid. " Dans la tcte de cette Jieroique princesse il y a de qnoi 
a faire vingt rots ! " exclaimed the celebrated advocate Berryer 
during the insurrection of 1832 in la Vendee; and he was not 
far from the truth. 

Born at the Palace of Caserta, near Naples, on November 5, 
1798, Marie Caroline lived to within a few months of the fall 
of the Second Empire, dying at the Chateau of Brunnsee, in 
Styria, on April 16, 1870. But it is only with what may be 
termed her public career, which ended with her release from the 
citadel of Blaye and her final departure from France in June 
1833, that this work is concerned. To have attempted to deal 
with the whole of her long and eventful life within the scope of 
a single volume would have involved the omission of much 
which serves to justify the title of "A Princess of Adventure." 
Moreover, it is a task which has never yet been successfully 
undertaken. 

In my endeavour to give a full and impartial account of the 
early life of the Duchesse de Berry, and of the historical events 
in which she was more or less directly concerned, I have con- 
sulted practically all the chief contemporary sources of informa- 
tion—some of which have only seen the light within recent 
years — and also a very large number of more modern works 
and review articles. 

Among the former, may be mentioned the memoirs of the 
Duchesse de Gontaut, the Comtesse de Boigne, Chateaubriand, 
Castellane, Marmont, and Rochechouart : the Mhnoires his- 
toriques de S.A.R. Madame ; duchesse Berri, depuis sa naissance 



viii A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

jusqu'd ce jour, published by that fervent Legitimist, Alfred 
Nettement, in 1837, for which Marie Caroline herself is believed 
to have furnished much valuable material ; the Journal militaire 
d'un chef de I'Ouest of Charette ; the Relation fidele et detaillie 
de I'arrestation de S.A.R. Madame, duchesse de Berry, by the 
advocate Achille Guibourg, who was arrested at the same time 
as the princess ; the Journal de la Captivite de la dudiesse de 
Berry a Blaye, by Ferdinand Petit-Pierre, one of the officers of 
the fortress ; la Captivite' de la duchesse de Berry a Blaye, by 
Dr. Prosper Meniere, who attended her during the last months 
of her imprisonment ; and the files of the leading journals of 
the period, such as the Monitetir, the Journal des Dibats, the 
Constitutionnel, and the Journal de Paris. 

Among the latter, I must acknowledge my indebtedness to 
the exhaustive studies of different phases of the princess's life 
by Imbert de Saint- Amand ; to the scholarly monographs of the 
Vicomte de Reiset, M. Thirria, and M. Charles Nauroy ; to the 
histories of Lamartine and Vieil-Castel ; to Cretineau-Joly's 
Histoire de la Vendee militaire ; to M. Henri Bouchot's le Luxe 
frangais : la Restaur ation ; to M. Charles Nauroy's les Derniers 
Bourbons, and les Secrets des Bourbons; to the Vicomte de Reiset's 
les Enfants du due de Berry ; to a remarkable article on the 
assassin Louvel, by Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, in the Revue des 
Deux Mondes, May 1830 ; and to another, on the Duchesse de 
Berry's mysterious journey to Rotterdam in 1832, by the Baron 
de Mesnard, in the Revue Angevine, May 1902. 



H. NOEL WILLIAMS 



London, 

August jgii 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

The Bourbons of the Two Sicilies — Charles VII. — Ferdinand IV. — His deplor- 
able education — His singular character — His marriage with the Arch- 
duchess Maria Carolina, who acquires complete ascendency over her 
husband and governs the kingdom in his name — Arrival of Acton at 
Naples — His reforms — Violent resistance of the Queen to the revolutionary 
movement both at home and abroad — Peace of Brescia — Matrimonial pro- 
jects of Maria Carolina— Marriage of the Prince-Royal to the Archduchess 
Maria Clementina — Letter of the Princess-Royal describing her life at Naples 
— Birth of the Princess Caroline, the future Duchesse de Berry — Renewal 
of the war with France — The Neapolitan troops occupy Rome, but are 
soon obliged to evacuate the city and retreat — Anarchy at Naples — Flight 
of the Royal Family to Palermo — A terrible voyage — The French occupy 
Naples, and the Parthenopean Republic is proclaimed — Fall of the republic 
and restoration of Ferdinand, who wreaks savage vengeance upon the 
leading spirits of the revolutionary movement — Luisa di Sanfelice — The 
Princess-Royal endeavours to obtain a commutation of her sentence, but 
Ferdinand is inexorable — Illness and death of the Princess- Royal 



CHAPTER II 

Respect of the Princess Caroline for her mother's memory — Second marriage of 
her father — Her early years — Ferdinand, at the instigation of the Queen, 
joins the Third Coalition — The French advance against Naples, and the 
Royal Family is again compelled to take refuge at Palermo — Second 
sojourn of the Court in Sicily — Girlhood of the Princess Caroline — Her 
education— Maria Carolina's affection for her — Arrival of the Due d'Or- 
leans at Palermo — His marriage with the Princess Amalia — Troubles in 
Sicily — Maria Carolina and Lord William Bentinck — Establishment of a 
constitution on the English model — bentinck insists on the departure of 
the Queen from Sicily, and she is compelled to retire to Austria — Maria 
Carolina and the Empress Marie Louise at the Castle of Hetzendorf — 
Death of the Queen — Grief of the Princess Caroline — Her resentment 
against Bentinck, whom she regards as her grandmother's " murderer " — 
Second restoration of Ferdinand ........ 14 

b « 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



CHAPTER III 

PAGE 

Portrait of the Princess Caroline at the age of seventeen — Her affection for 
Sicily — -Arrival of the Comte de Blacas at Naples to propose a marriage 
between her and the Due de Berry — Political considerations which induce 
Louis XVIII. to seek this alliance — The proposition favourably received by 
Ferdinand and the Prince-Royal, who, however, leave the princess free to 
decide for herself — Blacas comes to Palermo — The princess gives her con- 
sent — Portrait of her by Blacas — Letters of Louis XVIII. and the Due de 
Berry to the princess, and of the princess to the Due de Berry — The prin- 
cess returns to Naples — The marriage-contract — The marriage by procura- 
tion — Letters of the princess and the Due de Berry — Illness of the princess 
— She sails for Marseilles .......... 23 



CHAPTER IV 

Arrival of the Duchesse de Berry at Marseilles — She is subjected to ten days' 
quarantine in the lazaretto — Madame de la Ferronays, her dame d'atours, 
joins her there — She is visited by her French Household, with whom she 
converses through a grating — Letters of Louis XVIII. and the Due de 
Berry to the princess — Her diversions in the lazaretto — She makes her 
official entry into Marseilles — Ceremony of her delivery to the representa- 
tive of Louis XVIII. — Her reception at Marseilles — Her visit to Toulon — 
Correspondence between her and the Due de Berry — She leaves Marseilles 
on her journey to Fontainebleau — The Fete-Dieu at Aix — Her reception at 
Lyons — Her arrival at Nemours — Increasing ardour of the Due de Berry's 
letters — -Meeting between the princess and the Royal Family at the Croix 
de Saint-Herem in the Forest of Fontainebleau — The Duchesse de Berry at 
Fontainebleau 36 



CHAPTER V 

Departure of the Duchesse de Berry and the Royal Family from Fontainebleau 
— Entry of the princess into Paris — A magnificent reception — Enthusiasm 
of the inhabitants of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine — Arrival at the Tuileries — 
The marriage ceremony at Notre-Dame — The Royal Family dines au grand 
convert at the Tuileries — The Due and Duchesse de Berry depart for the 
Elysee-Bourbon — A singular ceremony ....... 53 



CHAPTER VI 

The Due de Berry — His boyhood — A pretty story — He emigrates with his 
family in 1789 — The School of Artillery at Turin — The duke joins the 
Army of Conde — A manage manque — The duke takes up his residence in 
London — His appearance and character — An incorrigible gallant — Amy 
Brown — Parentage of Amy Brown — Her four elder children : John and 
Robert Freeman, Emma Georgiana Marshall, and George Brown — 
Baptismal certificates of her two daughters by the Due de Berry, Charlotte 



CONTENTS xi 



and Louise Brown — Mystery of the paternity of the elder children — Asser- 
tion of the Prince de Lucinge, husband of Charlotte Brown, that all the 
children of Amy Brown were the issue of a lawful marriage between her 
and the Due de Berry which Louis XVIII. had refused to recognise — The 
legend of George Brown, the " child of mystery " — Article in the Telegraphe 
of April 14, 1877 — Appearance of M. Charles Nauroy's work, les Secrets 
des Bourbons — The brochure of M. Grave — Improbability of the supposed 
marriage having taken place at the time alleged by M. Nauroy shown by 
the narrative of Madame de Gontaut and the letters of the Due de Berry to 
the Comte de Clermont-Lodeve — The tradition of the marriage very firmly 
established, notwithstanding that the balance of authoritative contemporary 
opinion is against it 61 



CHAPTER VII 

Evidence upon which the partisans of the marriage rely to establish their claim 
— The death-certificate of Amy Brown — The letters of the Due de Berry to 
the Comte de Clermont-Lodeve — Inability of M. Nauroy and his supporters 
to produce any documentary evidence of the smallest value — Two wills of 
the Due de Berry, executed in 1810 and 181 7, held by the Vicomte de 
Reiset to be an unanswerable proof that the prince had never contracted a 
marriage with Amy Brown — His conclusions considered — Return of the 
Due de Berry to France at the Restoration — Amy Brown and his little 
daughter follow him to Paris — Episode at the Opera — The Due de Berry 
visits Amy incognito — The danseuse Virginie Oreille becomes the mistress 
of the prince — " The Amours of Paul and Virginie " — The violent language 
of the Due de Berry towards the officers under his command contributes to 
alienate the Army from the Bourbons — The Due de Berry and Virginie 
during the Hundred Days — Conduct of the prince after the Second 
Restoration 81 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Due and Duchesse de Berry at the Elysee-Bourbon — History of the palace — 
The duchess's apartments — A happy marriage — Simple habits of the young 
couple— Anecdotes of the ticket-collector of the Champs-Elysees and of the 
young man with the umbrella — Their love of the arts^Their musical tastes — 
Household of the Duchesse de Berry— The Duchesse de Reggio, dame 
d'honneur — The Comtesse de la Ferronays, dame d'atours — Madame de 
Gontaut — Mesdames de Lauriston, de Hautefort, de Bouille, and de 
Gourgues — Monseigneur de Bombelles, first almoner — The Due de Levis, 
first equerry — The Comte de Mesnard, cluvalier d'honneur — The Elysee and 
the Tuileries— Attachment of Louis XVIII. to the Duchesse de Berry — 
Affectionate relations between the young princess and Madame, the Due 
d'Angouleme, and Monsieur — Visit of the Duchesse de Berry to the old 
Prince de Conde at Chantilly— The Elysee and the Palais-Royal — Louis 
XVIII. 's distrust of the Due d'Orleans — The Duchesse de Berry endeavours 
to persuade the King to confer the title of " Royal Highness" upon Louis- 
Philippe, but without success 96 



xii A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



CHAPTER IX 

PAGE 

Dissensions in the Royal Family owing to the opposition between the liberal 
ideas of Louis XVIII. and the reactionary views of his brother and the 
Duchesse d'Angouleme — Indignation of the Comte d'Artois and Madame at 
the royal decree dissolving the " Chambre introuvable " — The action of the 
Due de Berry in canvassing openly for votes against the Government 
leads to a violent scene at the Tuileries — Prudent conduct of the Duchesse 
de Berry, who holds studiously aloof from politics and makes no distinction 
between the members of the rival parties — Growing popularity of the 
young princess with the Parisians — Infidelity of the Due de Berry, who 
resumes his pre-nuptial relations with Virginie Oreille — Indignation of the 
King on learning of his nephew's presence at a ball given by the danseuse — 
Liaison between the Due de Berry and Mile. Sophie de la Roche — Other 
amours of the prince — Jealousy of the duchess — Her conversation with the 
Neapolitan Ambassador, the Prince Castelcicala — The Duchesse de Berry 
gives birth to a daughter, who, however, dies on the following day — 
Humiliation inflicted by Louis XVIII. on the Due d'Orleans at the signing 
of the acte de naissance — Affair of the layette : rupture between the Due de 
Berry and the Comte de la Ferronays — Premature birth of a son, who only 
survives two hours — Disappointment of the Due de Berry — -Enviable 
position of the duchess — Life at the Elysee — Birth of Mademoiselle — The 
etiquette of the royal nursery — Portrait of the Duchesse de Berry by 
Hesse . . . • • . . . . . .114 



CHAPTER X 

Brilliant winter season of 1819-20 — Balls at the Elysee — The Duchesse de 
Berry accompanies her husband's shooting-parties — Threatening political 
situation — Louis XVIII. and the Comte Decazes — Violent hostility of the 
"Ultras" to the King's favourite — Election of the Abbe Gregoire for 
Grenoble — Proposed alteration of the electoral system — Decazes becomes 
Prime Minister — Happy influence of married life upon the character of the 
Due de Berry — His charity and kindness of heart — Anecdote of the boy with 
the basket — Anecdote of the charcoal-burner — Threatening anonymous 
letters received by the Due de Berry — Gloomy presentiments of the prince — 
Ball at the Comte de Greffulhe's — A disturbing letter — Regret of the Due 
de Berry for his loss of temper at a shooting-party : his atonement — The 
duchess again pregnant — Visit of the Due and Duchesse de Berry to the 
Opera on the evening of Shrove-Sunday, February 13, 1820 . . . 129 



CHAPTER XI 

Louvel — His early life — His violent animosity against the Bourbons, whom 
he resolves to " exterminate " — He determines to commence operations 
with the assassination of the Due de Berry, but his courage repeatedly fails 
him — His conduct on the night of February 13, 1820 — The Due and 
Duchesse de Berry at the Opera—The princess, having met with a slight 



CONTENTS xiii 

PAGE 

accident, decides to return to the Elysee before the end of the perform- 
ance — The duke conducts his wife to her carriage, and is stabbed by Louvel 
as he turns to re-enter the Opera-house — Pursuit and capture of the 
assassin — The wounded prince is carried into the salon behind his box — 
Courage and presence of mind of the Duchesse de Berry — An extraordinary 
scene — The Due de Berry and the Bishop of Amyclee — Arrival of 
Monsieur and the Due and Duchesse d'Angouleme — A futile operation — 
Administration of the last Sacraments — Madame de Gontaut brings 
Mademoiselle to the Opera-house — The Duchesse de Berry, at her husband's 
request, sends for the duke's daughters by Amy Brown — -Arrival of Louis 
XVIII. — "Sire, grace, gr&cepour la vie de Pihomme! " — The last moments 
— Death of the Due de Berry ......... 140 

CHAPTER XII 

The body of the Due de Berry transported to the Louvre — Consternation in 
Paris — Decazes tenders his resignation to the King, who refuses to accept 
it — An unfortunate incident — Meeting of the Chambers — Clausel de 
Coussergues demands the impeachment of Decazes, "as an accomplice of 
the assassination of the Due de Berry " — Furious outcry against the 
Minister — The resistance of Louis XVIII. eventually overcome by the 
representation of Monsieur and the Duchesse d'Angouleme — Fall of Decazes 
— Grief of the King — Lying-in-state of the Due de Berry— His obsequies 
at Saint-Denis — Monuments erected to his memory . . . . .160 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Duchesse de Berry installed at the Pavilion de Marsan at the Tuileries — A 
cruel contrast — First appearance of the princess in public since the death of 
her husband — Jacobin attempts against her and her unborn child — Courage 
of the princess — Singular dream— Her conviction that she is destined to bear 
a prince — Violent agitation against the Government— Riots in Paris— Trial 
of Louvel — His behaviour while in prison — His remarkable speech before 
the Chamber of Peers — He is sentenced to death — His last hours — His 
execution — Formidable conspiracy against the reigning dynasty discovered 
— The hopes of the Royalists are centred in the child which the Duchesse 
de Berry is to bear — Verses of Victor Hugo — Arrival of a deputation from 
the market-women of Bordeaux to present a cradle to the Duchesse de 
Berry — A present from Pau — The name of Henri chosen for the hoped- 
for prince — A rumour is circulated by the enemies of the Monarchy that 
the princess is not pregnant, and that there is to be a supposititious child — 
Precautions adopted by Louis XVIII. to refute this calumy . . . 167 

CHAPTER XIV 

Birth of the Due de Bordeaux — Singular circumstances attending this event — 
Madame de Gontaut's narrative — Remarkable courage and sa?ig-froid of the 
Duchesse de Berry — Arrival of the King — The Jurancon wine and the clove 
of garlic — " That is for you, and this is for me ! " — Indescribable enthusiasm 



xiv A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

PAGE 

of the Parisians — The Due de Bordeaux and the soldiers — Speech of 
Louis XVIII. to the crowd at the Tuileries— The public admitted to see 
the little prince — Rejoicings in Paris — The " child of miracle " and the 
"child of Europe" — Hysterical jubilation of the Royalist journals — 
Adulation of the poets 1 80 



CHAPTER XV 

Appearance of a libel, under the name of the Due d'Orleans, declaring the Due 
de Bordeaux to be a supposititious child — The Due d'Orleans hastens to 
disavow any connection with this publication — New popularity of the 
Monarchy — The Chateau of Chambord purchased by public subscription 
and presented to the little prince, in the name of the nation— The Duchesse 
de Berry, notwithstanding the birth of her son, continues to feel very keenly 
the loss of her husband — Baptism of the Due de Bordeaux — An alarming 
incident — The baptismal fetes — Pilgrimage of the Duchesse de Berry to 
Notre-Dame de Liesse 189 



CHAPTER XVI 

The Duchesse de Berry resumes the habits of the early days of her married life 
— Kindness and generosity of the princess — Method which she adopts to 
extend her patronage as widely as possible among the tradespeople of the 
capital — Her visit to Mont-Dore — She begins to entertain again at the 
Pavilion de Marsan — The Bourbons triumphant in Naples and Spain, as 
well as in France — Situation at the Tuileries — Louis XVIII. and his 
favourites — Madame du Cayla — Her history — Sosthene de la Rochefou- 
cauld urges her " to essay the rSle of Esther to the Ahasuerus of Louis 
XVIII." — Her first interview with the King — Infatuation of Louis XVIII. 
for her — He presents her with the Pavilion of Saint-Ouen — Influence 
which she exercises over the King — Her relations with the Duchesse de 
Berry — Visit of the duchess to Dieppe — Her reception— Her first " dip " — 
Illness of Louis XVIII. — Heroic fortitude of the King who, despite his 
sufferings, continues to discharge his official duties — Madame du Cayla 
persuades him to send for his confessor — Administration of the Sacraments 
-Death of Louis XVIII 



199 



CHAPTER XVII 

The new King and the Royal Family at Saint-Cloud— Lying-in-state of Louis 
XVIII. — The procession to Saint-Denis — The funeral ceremony — Character 
of Charles X. — The new reign opens under the happiest auspices — Entry of 
the King into Paris— Review in the Champ de Mars— A colonel of four 
years of age— Opening of the Chambers : incident of the King's hat — 
Death of Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies— Charles X. decides to be 
crowned at Rheims— Arrival of the King at Rheims— The Duchesse de 
Berry and Jeanne d'Arc— The Sucre— The return to Paris . . . . 215 



CONTENTS xv 



CHAPTER XVIII 

PAGE 

The Duchesse de Berry assumes the title of Madame — The period between the 
coronation of Charles X. and the fall of the Monarchy that of her greatest 
social triumphs — The Chateau of Rosny — Her life there — Her kindness to 
the poor of the neighbourhood — The heart of the Due de Berry deposited 
in the chapel of the hospital which she erects at Rosny — Madame at Dieppe 
— The royal yacht, le Triton — An intrepid sailor — Benevolence of Madame 
— Visit of Mademoiselle to Dieppe — A gallant mayor — Picnic in the valley 
of Arques — The Due de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle — Anecdotes of their 
early years — Admirable educational system of Madame de Gontaut — 
Anxiety of the gotivertiante to protect her charges from flatterers — An 
invaluable object-lesson — The Due de Bordeaux leaves Madame de Gon- 
taut's care for that of the Due de Riviere, who has been appointed his 
gouverneur — The nomination of the duke and that of Mgr. Thalin, Bishop 
of Strasbourg, to the post of preceptor, severely criticised by the Opposi- 
tion journals — Death of the Due de Riviere, who is succeeded by the Baron 
de Damas . ........... 225 

CHAPTER XIX 

Tour of the Duchesse de Berry in the West of France — Visit to Chambord — 
Frenzied enthusiasm of the Vendeens at Saint-Florent — Sainte-Anne 
d'Auray — Madame in the Bocage — Reception at Bordeaux — Her stay in 
the Pyrenees — Her campaign of 1832 the natural consequence of the im- 
pressions concerning the loyalty of Western France which she had con- 
ceived during this tour — Decline of the popularity of Charles X. — The 
review of April 29, 1827 — "A das les jesuitesses ! '" — Disbanding of the 
National Guard — Fall of the Villele Government — The Martignac Ministry 
— Incurable illusions of the King as to the true sentiments of the nation . 237 

CHAPTER XX 

The Carnival of 1829— The Mary Stuart ball — Calumny concerning the 
Duchesse de Berry and her first equerry, the Comte de Mesnard — Last visit 
of Madame to Dieppe — Madame and the Orleans family — Project of 
marriage between the Due de Chartres and Mademoiselle — Journey of the 
Duchesse de Berry to the South of France to meet the King and Queen of 
the Two Sicilies — Critical condition of affairs — The Martignac Ministry is 
dismissed, and succeeded by one of avowed reactionaries under the leader- 
ship of the Prince Jules de Polignac — Widespread indignation and alarm — 
The "Address of the 221 " — The King prorogues, and then dissolves the 
Chamber of Deputies — Visit of the King and Queen of the Two Sicilies to 
Paris — The ball at the Palais-Royal 244 

CHAPTER XXI 

The elections of 1830 disastrous for the Polignac Ministry — Charles X., en- 
couraged by the taking of Algiers, resolves on a coup d'Jitat — The Ordi- 
nances of July 25, 1830 — Conversation between the King and Madame de 



xvi A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

PAGE 

Gontaut on the morning on which the Ordinances are published in the 
Moniteur — Reception of the Ordinances in Paris — Fatal optimism of the 
Government — The Revolution begins on the morning of July 27, 1830 — 
Unpreparedness of the Government — Formidable outbreak on the morning 
of the 28th — Mistaken tactics of Marmont, who commands the troops — 
Desperate fighting in the streets — Alarm of the Court at Saint-Cloud — 
Anguish of the Duchesse de Berry, who entreats Charles X. to allow her to 
go with her son to Paris — Childish obstinacy of the King, who refuses to 
promise the withdrawal of the Ordinances — The evening of July 28 at 
Saint-Cloud — Renewal of the fighting on the 29th : the Tuileries stormed 
by the insurgents — " Ah, mon Dim ! I see the tricolour ! " — The King 
still unable to realise the situation — The evening of July 29 at Saint-Cloud 
— The royal children and the wounded soldiers — Charles X. appoints Morte- 
mart President of the Council, and sends him to Paris with the revocation 
of the Ordinances — But his belated concessions are received with derision — 
Arrival of the Due d'Orleans in the capital 255 



CHAPTER XXII 

The Duchesse de Berry, alarmed for the safety of her children, begs the Dauphin 
to persuade Charles X. to leave Saint-Cloud — Departure of the Court at 
daybreak on July 31 — Arrival at the Grand-Trianon— Astonishment of the 
King at the costume assumed by Madame — The Court continues its retreat 
to Rambouillet — A frugal supper — The Dauphine joins her relatives — 
Charles X. and the Due d'Orleans — Abdication of the King in favour of 
the Due de Bordeaux — Efforts of the Duchesse de Berry to induce Charles 
X. to allow her to go to Paris — " Vive Henri V. /" — Duplicity of the Due 
d'Orleans — A game of bluff— Charles X. decides to leave France — Depar- 
ture of the Royal Family from Rambouillet — Arrival at the Chateau of 
Maintenon — The King takes leave of the troops — The journey to the 
coast — Madame urges the King not to abandon the struggle — The Royal 
Family at Valognes — Farewell to the Gardes du corps — Arrival at Cher- 
bourg—The Royal Family sail for England 268 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Arrival of the exiled family at Cowes — Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, is 
placed at their disposal — Refusal of the British Government to treat them 
otherwise than as private persons of distinction — Ungenerous attitude of the 
Press — Sympathy of the Duke of Wellington — Kindness shown by the 
Marquis of Anglesey and his daughters to the Duchesse de Berry — The 
Royal Family at Lulworth Castle — Tour made by Madame through the West 
and Midlands — Charles X., persecuted by his old creditors, obtains per- 
mission to remove to Holyrood — The Duchesse de Berry in London — She 
rejoins her relatives in Scotland — Death of her father, Francis I. of the Two 
Sicilies — Determination of Madame to endeavour to recover the Crown 
for her son, and to play an active part in the projected expedition herself — 



CONTENTS xvii 



Extraordinary influence of Sir Walter Scott's novels upon her imagination 
— Futile efforts of Charles X. to persuade her to renounce her bellicose 
projects — The title of Regent of France conferred upon her — Madame at 
Bath— She receives enthusiastic promises of support from all parts of France 
— She sails for Rotterdam en route for Italy 2 ^S 



CHAPTER XXIV 

The Duchesse de Berry and her companions arrive at Sestri — The French 
Ambassador insists on their expulsion from the Sardinian States — Madame 
establishes herself at Massa, where she is treated en soiiveraine — Her letter 
to her friend the Comtesse de Meffray — She visits Florence, but her 
expulsion from Tuscany is immediately demanded, and she removes to 
Lucca — She sets out for Naples, on a visit to her half-brother, Ferdinand II., 
King of the Two Sicilies— Her stay in Rome— The Count Ettore Lucchesi- 
Palli— His friendship with Madame— Arrival of the princess at Naples — 
A sad contrast — Second visit of Madame to Rome — Her court at Massa 
— Illusions of the princess and her partisans in regard to the situation of 
affairs in France — Attitude of Madame on the question of foreign inter- 
vention on behalf of her son — Her adherents in Fiance urge her to action — 
She sends orders to the Legitimist leaders to prepare to rise in arms — 
And departs secretly for Marseilles, on board a Sardinian steamer, the 
Carlo Alberto 295 



CHAPTER XXV 

Arrival of the Carlo Alberto off Marseilles — A perilous landing— The Duchesse 
de Berry and her companions take refuge in a gamekeeper's hut amidst the 
woods, to await the promised rising at Marseilles — A sleepless night — A 
comic-opera insurrection — "All has failed; you must leave France!" — 
Madame refuses to accept defeat, and insists on setting out for la Vendee — 
A night's journey on foot — A chivalrous Republican — Madame and her 
companions reach the Chateau of Bonrecueil— The Government, under the 
delusion that the princess is still on board the Carlo Alberto, despatches a 
cruiser in pursuit of that vessel — Capture of the Carlo Alberto — Mile. 
~Lebzsch\\, femme d'atours to Madame, is mistaken for her mistress — Arrival 
of the Carlo Alberto at Toulon : absurd situation — The authorities order the 
supposed Duchesse de Berry to be conducted to Ajaccio, where the mistake 
is discovered — Total ignorance of the Government as to the whereabouts of 
the princess : letter of the Minister of the Interior to the Minister of the 
Marine 3°4 



CHAPTER XXVI 

Journey of the Duchesse de Berry to la Vendee— A titled coachman — The 
princess arrives at the Chateau of Plaissac, near Saintes — Incidents of the 
journey — Review of the situation in la Vendee since the July Revolution — 
Decision of the la Fetelliere conference of September 1S31 — Madame 's 



xviii A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



proclamation — She issues orders to her adherents to take up arms on 
May 24 — She leaves Plaissac for the Chateau of Preuille, near Montaigu, 
where she assumes masculine attire — Narrow escape of the princess from 
drowning in crossing the Moine — Arrival at Bellecour with Charette and 
Mesnard — Letter addressed to her by certain Vendeen chiefs entreating her 
to countermand her orders for May 24 — Refusal of the princess — She is 
compelled to fly from Bellecour — A night in a stable — The Chateau of 
Louvardiere — Le Magasin — Madame receives further protests against the 
rising from the Vendeen leaders, but they fail to shake her resolution — 
Arrival of the advocate Berryer, who has induced the Marechal de 
Bourmont to issue a counter-order — And endeavours to persuade the 
princess to abandon the enterprise and leave France — Madame consents, 
but soon recalls her decision — Council of war at le Meslier — Issue of a new 
order fixing the rising for the night of June 3-4 . . . . . ■ 3 X 3 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Disastrous effects of the counter-order issued by Bourmont — Seizure of the con- 
spirators' plan of campaign and other important papers at the Chateau 
of la Chasliere — Madame leaves le Meslier, and makes her way to la 
Mouchetiere — The news that gendarmes are approaching obliges her to 
escape, in the middle of the night, across the fields to Moulin-Etienne — 
Anguish of Madame on learning of the disasters that have befallen her 
cause — She is escorted by a party of Vendeen gentlemen to la Brosse, near 
Montbert — Berryer writes to the princess imploring her to allow him to 
conduct her to Savoy ; but she repulses with indignation all idea of flight — 
The Vendeens rise in arms in the night of June 3-4, but the insurrection is 
easily suppressed — Bravery of Charette's corps — Barbarities committed by 
Louis-Philippe's troops on the non-combatants — Butchery at la Mouchetiere 
— The combat of le Chene — Heroic defence of the Chateau of la Penissiere 
— Visit of a party of soldiers to la Brosse — Madame is compelled to hide for 
six hours in a ditch — She proceeds to Pont Saint-Martin, and decides to 
take refuge at Nantes — The princess and Mile. Eulalie de Kersabiec set out 
for Nantes, disguised as peasant-women — An adventurous journey — Madame 
reads a proclamation offering a large reward for information which may lead 
to her arrest — She arrives safely at the Kersabiecs' house at Nantes . . 324 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Duchesse de Berry leaves the Kersabiecs', and takes refuge at the house of 
the Miles, du Guigny, in the Rue Haute-du-Chateau — Her apartments are 
two attics, one of which contains a mysterious hiding-place constructed 
during the Terror — Precautions adopted to guard against surprise— Charette 
urges the princess to allow him to conduct her from France, but she refuses 
— Explanation of her resolve to remain in France — Her ceaseless corre- 
spondence with the Legitimist leaders in France and her agents at foreign 
Courts — Futile efforts of the Government to ascertain her whereabouts — 
Thiers becomes Minister of the Interior, and determines to make the capture 



CONTENTS xix 

PAGE 

of Madame his personal affair — He receives an unsigned letter offering to 
impart to him important information in regard to an affair of State —Meeting 
between the Minister and the writer in the Champs-Elysees — Hyacinthe 
Simon Deutz — His strange career — He is recommended to Madame by 
Pope Gregory XVI., and is sent by her on a mission to Portugal — His 
determination .to betray his employer — A shameful compact — Deutz at 
Nantes — His first interview with Madame leads to no result — He solicits a 
second audience, which, contrary to the advice of her friends, the princess 
accords — Soldiers are perceived approaching the house, and Madame, 
Mesnard, Guibourg, and Stylitede Kersabiec take refuge in the hiding-place 
— A terrible night — The princess and her friends are obliged to surrender 
to avoid being burned alive — They are conducted to the Chateau of 
Nantes 333 



CHAPTER XXIX 

The Duchesse de Berry, Mesnard, and Stylite de Kersabiec are removed from 
Nantes and conveyed to the citadel of Blaye, on the Gironde, on board the 
corvette Capricieuse — A stormy voyage — Arrival at Blaye, where Madame 
is installed in a house which had formerly served as the governor's residence 
— Consideration shown by the authorities for her material comfort — 
Extraordinary precautions taken to guard against any possibility of escape 
— Her daily life — She appears resigned to her fate, but has occasional 
violent outbursts of temper — Decision of the Government not to bring her to 
trial — Reason for this — Her continued detention justified to the Chamber 
on the ground that the public safety requires it — The true explanation . 349 



CHAPTER XXX 

First suspicion that the Duchesse de Berry is enceinte — Dr. Gintrac, of 
Bordeaux, visits the princess — Reticence of this physician — Refusal of 
Madame to see Barthez, the surgeon attached to the citadel ; her letter to 
the commandant, Colonel Chousserie — The Government send Drs. Auvitz 
and Orfila to Blaye — The announcement of their departure followed by a 
violent outcry against the Ministry in the Legitimist journals, which demand 
the immediate release of the princess, on the ground that her captivity 
is endangering her life — Reports of the doctors — Rumour that Madame is 
enceinte begins to circulate in Paris — Article in the Corsaire, followed by a 
duel in which the writer is wounded — Threats of the Legitimists defied by 
the National and the Tribune — Twelve duels arranged — Armand Carrel, 
editor of the National, severely wounded in an encounter with M. Roux- 
Laborie — Wrath of the Republicans — Interference of the Government — 
Sad situation of the Duchesse de Berry at Blaye — General Bugeaud re- 
places Colonel Chousserie as commandant of the citadel, and subjects 
the unfortunate prisoner to the most rigorous surveillance — Despatches of 
Bugeaud to the Government — The declaration of February 22, 1833, in 
which Madame admits her condition, and declares that she was secretly 



xx A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



married during her residence in Italy — Letter of the princess to Mesnard — 
The declaration is published in the Moniteur of February 26 — Immense 
sensation in Paris : joy of the Orleanists, consternation of the Legitimists — 
The secret marriage is not credited : scandalous rumours — Dr. Meniere at 
Blaye — He is summoned to Paris — Singular interview between him and 
Louis-Philippe 35^ 



CHAPTER XXXI 

The Government insist that the accouchement of the Duchesse de Berry shall 
take place in the presence of official witnesses, in order that her supposed 
dishonour may be established beyond dispute — Intolerable surveillance to 
which the princess is subjected — Violent scene between Madame and 
General Bugeaud — Precautions taken by the latter to ensure the publicity 
of the event — The princess consents to the conditions which the Government 
desires to impose — She gives birth to a daughter on the morning of 
May 10, 1833, and causes it to be announced that she is the wife of the 
Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli — The marriage of the Duchesse de Berry and 
Lucchesi-Palli no longer contestable — The marriage-deed in the archives of 
the Vicariat at Rome — The letters in the archives of the Chateau of 
Brunnsee — Twofold importance of these letters, which establish not only the 
marriage, but the legitimacy of the child born at Blaye — The story of 
Madame' s secret journey to Rotterdam, at first received with incredulity, 
confirmed by them and the testimony of Madame Harson — Question 
whether Lucchesi visited the princess at Nantes — Proof adduced by M. 
Thirria — Reasons which induced the princess to guard the secret of her 
morganatic union — Her letter to Chateaubriand — Sad results of the scandal 
which her silence has provoked — Acquittal of the leaders of the insurrection 
— Chateaubriand's visit to Prague — Departure of Madame from Blaye — 
She sails for Palermo, where she is received by her husband, and disappears 
into private life ............ 364 

Index . . 377 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berry , . . Photogravure Frontispiece 

V 
From the Engraving by Grevedon, after the Painting by Sir Thomas 

Lawrence 

KACING 
PAGE 

The Royal Family of Naples (Ferdinand IV. and Maria Carolina 

and their Children) 8 

From an Engraving in the British Museum 

Louis XVIII. , King of France 40 

From an Engraving by P. Andouin, after the Drawing by P. Bouillon 

Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Due de Berry 66 

From a Lithograph by Delpech 

Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berry 104 

From an Engraving, after the Painting by Hesse 

Elie, Due Decazes 13° / 

From an Engraving by P. Teschi, after the Painting by F. Gerard 

Death of the Due de Berry 154 

From the Painting by Mayaud, at Versailles 

Zoe Talon, Comtesse du Cayla 204 

From the Painting by Louis David, by permission of Goupil & Co. 

Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berry, with her Children, the 
Due de Bordeaux, afterwards the Comte de Chambord, and 

Mademoiselle 232 

From an Engraving by Delannoy, after the Painting by F. Gerard 

Charles X., King of France 258 

From the Painting by F. Gerard. Photograph by Neurdein 

Louis-Philippe I., King of the French 280 

From the Painting by Winterhalter, in the Mus£e de Versailles. 
Photograph by Neurdein 

XXI 



xxii A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

FACIKG 
PAGE 

Louis Auguste Victor de Bourmont, Comte de Chaisne, Marechal 

de France 300V 

From a Lithograph by Delpech 

Mlle. Mathilde Lebeschu 310 ■■•/ 

From a Lithograph by Bazin, after the Painting by E. Fechner 

Charles Athanase de Charette, Baron de la Contrie . . . 318- 
From a Wood Engraving 

Antoine Pierre Berryer 326- 

From a Lithograph by Delpech 

Thomas Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie, Due d'Isly, and 

Marechal de France 360 

From a Lithograph by B. Roubaud 

Carlo Vittore, Conte Lucchesi-Palli di Campo-Franco, after- 
wards Duca della Grazia 370 *' 

From a contemporary Engraving 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



' Dans la tete de cette heroiique 
princesse il y a de quoi a faire 
vingt rois." — Berryer. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

MARIE CAROLINE, DUCHESSE 
DE BERRY 

CHAPTER I 

The Bourbonsof the Two Sicilies — Charles VII. — Ferdinand IV. — His deplorable 
education — His singular character — His marriage with the Archduchess Maria 
Carolina, who acquires complete ascendency over her husband and governs the 
kingdom in his name — Arrival of Acton at Naples — His reforms — Violent resistance 
of the Queen to the revolutionary movement both at home and abroad — Peace of 
Brescia — Matrimonial projects of Maria Carolina — Marriage of the Prince- Royal to 
the Archduchess Maria Clementina — Letter of the Princess-Royal describing her life at 
Naples — Birth of the Princess Caroline, the future Duchesse de Berry — Renewal of 
the war with France — The Neapolitan troops occupy Rome, but are soon obliged to 
evacuate the city and retreat — Anarchy at Naples — Flight of the Royal Family to 
Palermo — A terrible voyage — The French occupy Naples, and the Parthenopean 
Republic is proclaimed — Fall of the republic and restoration of Ferdinand, who 
wreaks savage vengeance upon the leading spirits of the revolutionary movement — 
Luisa di Sanfelice — The Princess-Royal endeavours to obtain a commutation of her 
sentence, but Ferdinand is inexorable— Illness and death of the Princess-Royal. 

THE Bourbons of the Two Sicilies were a branch of the 
Bourbons of Spain. Among the possessions which 
comprised the vast inheritance bequeathed, in 1700, 
by Carlos II. to Philippe, Due d'Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., 
was the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the largest of all the 
States of Italy, with about six million inhabitants. Obliged, at 
the close of the War of the Austrian Succession, to purchase his 
recognition as King of Spain and the Indies by the surrender 
of his Italian dominions, 1 Philip V. recovered the Two Sicilies 

1 By the Treaty of Utrecht, the Milanese, Naples, and Sardinia were given to 
Austria, and Sicily to Victor Amadeus II. of Savoy. In 17 19, Victor Amadeus 
exchanged Sicily for Sardinia. 

B 1 



2 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

twenty years later, and in 1734 the new dynasty was implanted 
there, in the person of the Infant Don Carlos, Philip's eldest 
son by his second wife, Isabella Farnese. 1 

Carlos reigned at Naples for a quarter of a century. He 
did little to ameliorate the miserable condition of the country, 
though Naples itself gained greatly in social brilliancy and in 
architectural splendour. The imposing theatre of San Carlo 
and the royal palaces of Capodimonte and Caserta date from 
this reign. The latter, situated sixteen miles from the capital, 
in the midst of an immense park, was an attempt to imitate the 
splendours of Versailles, and is said to have cost six million 
ducats. 2 

In 1759, in consequence of the death of his half-brother, 
Ferdinand VI., who had succeeded Philip V, Carlos was called 
to the throne of Spain, and transferred the Neapolitan States 
to his third son, Ferdinand, who became the fourth sovereign of 
that name at Naples and the third in Sicily. 

As Ferdinand was but eight years old, the government was 
carried on by a Council of Regency with the Prime Minister, 
Bernardo Tanucci, at its head, while the education of the young 
King was entrusted to the old Prince of San Nicandro, a noble- 
man of most exalted lineage, but in other respects eminently 
unfitted to be the preceptor of royalty. Anxious to preserve 
his younger son from that melancholia bordering on insanity to 
which both his father and his eldest son had been victims, 
Carlos III. gave directions that the boy should lead a healthy, 
outdoor life, and that sedentary occupations should be so far as 
possible avoided. But Tanucci and San Nicandro, who desired 
to keep all authority in their own hands, interpreted these 
instructions in a sense which would have considerably astonished 
his Catholic Majesty, and Ferdinand grew up strong and 
healthy, an intrepid horseman, an excellent shot, and an experi- 
enced fisherman, but one of the most ignorant monarchs who 
have ever sat upon a throne. Not only was his knowledge of 
any foreign tongue confined to the barest smattering, but he 
could not even speak Italian correctly, and used habitually the 
jargon of the lazzaroni, with whom he loved to mix and with 
whom he was immensely popular. Literature, art, and science, 

1 Don Carlos assumed the titles of Charles VII. of Naples and Charles V. of 
Sicily. 

- About ;£ 1,000,000. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 3 

were to him little more than names, while his Ministers took 
care that he should not be troubled with public affairs, and he 
was only too pleased to be left in ignorance. 

His Majesty's manners were the reverse of kingly. He 
delighted in rough practical jokes. On one occasion, he caused 
a certain Abbate Mezzinghi to be tossed in a blanket by some 
of his boon companions, which so scandalised the worthy man 
that, though quite unhurt, he never recovered from the humili- 
ation to which he had been subjected, but died of chagrin. On 
another, while strolling on the Chiaja, he perceived a sturdy 
and exceedingly dirty beggar, who would be obviously the 
better for a bath. Him he promptly seized by the legs and 
flung into the sea ; then, seeing that the man was unable to 
swim, he plunged into the water and brought him laughing to 
the shore. One of his favourite amusements was to sell the 
proceeds of his fishing expeditions by auction on the quay, 
where, clad in the garb of an ordinary fisherman, he might have 
been seen bandying rough jests with the crowd of lazzaroni 
who surrounded him, and haggling over his wares as though 
his living depended upon them, for nothing delighted him 
more than to get the better of his humble customers. 

Ignorant and boorish as he was, Ferdinand was far from 
being a fool, for under his rough exterior there lay a vein of 
natural good-sense, which corrected to some extent the defects 
of his deplorable education, and there were occasions when he 
showed, by some shrewd remark or sagacious action, that had he 
received the ordinary training of a prince, he would have made 
a very capable king. 

If he showed himself cruel and vindictive in his later years, 
he was, until the fatal sequel of the French Revolution had 
aroused the latent cruelty in his nature, a good-humoured, 
kindly man, with a real sympathy for his poorer subjects, 
whose grievances he was always willing to redress when they 
were brought under his personal notice. 

In 1768, Carlos III. obtained for Ferdinand the hand of the 
Archduchess Maria Carolina, eldest daughter of the Empress 
Maria Theresa and sister of Marie Antoinette. The young 
princess was only sixteen, a year younger than her husband, 
but the Empress had given her daughters an education which 
had prepared them at an early age for the role which they were 
to fill. Less beautiful than Marie Antoinette, the Queen of 



4 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Naples far surpassed her in intelligence. She had inherited the 
clear and vigorous mind and the indomitable will of her mother ; 
and, girl though she was, she came to Naples with the fixed 
determination of playing a prominent part in public affairs. 
From the first days of her marriage, she acquired a great 
ascendency over Ferdinand, and had no difficulty in inducing 
him to abandon to her the authority hitherto left in the 
hands of his Ministers. Tanucci, who had vainly struggled 
against her influence, was disgraced in 1777, and from that 
time it was the Queen who governed in the name of her 
husband and who directed as sovereign mistress the affairs of 
the kingdom. 

Maria Carolina surrounded herself with a brilliant throng of 
savants, politicians, and men of letters. The great economist 
and jurist, Gaetano Filangieri, author of that Scienza delta 
Legislazione which exercised so great an influence on Neapolitan 
thinkers ; Mario Pagano, author of I Saggi Politici ; the 
scientists Palmieri and Galanti ; the historian Francesco Con- 
forti ; the poetess Eleonora de Fonseca Pimentel — all these and 
many others were to be found in the Queen's salon. Her 
Majesty entered with enthusiasm into the schemes which they 
propounded for the regeneration of the human race, and under 
her auspices many useful reforms were set on foot. The 
administration of justice was purified, waste lands reclaimed, 
colonies planted on uninhabited islands, roads constructed, 
schools founded, agriculture encouraged, and the evils of tax- 
gathering mitigated. 

But the great ambition of Maria Carolina was to play a 
prominent part in the politics of Europe — an ambition which 
necessitated the reorganisation of the Army and Navy, both of 
which had fallen into a deplorable condition. To effect this, 
she summoned to Naples that singular adventurer John Acton, 
then in his forty-third year. The son of an English physician, 
a Catholic and a Jacobite, who had emigrated to France and 
settled at Besancon, Acton had been for a time in the French 
Navy, which, however, he quitted for the naval service of the 
Queen's brother, Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, where he 
greatly distinguished himself by his bravery and skill in an 
expedition against the Moors. Acton speedily gained the 
complete confidence of Maria Carolina, and from Minister of 
Marine he became successively Minister of War and commander- 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 5 

in-chief of the land and sea forces, Minister of Finance, and 
ultimately Prime Minister. 

The shrewd, energetic, and masterful Englishman laboured 
strenuously to infuse vitality into the sluggish Neapolitan ad- 
ministration, but he did not succeed in appreciably bettering 
the existing state of things ; for, though in a few years he had 
created a powerful fleet and a formidable army, the increased 
taxation which this necessitated more than counterbalanced 
his efforts in other directions, and caused acute distress and 
great resentment. This was the more unfortunate, since with 
the advent of the French Revolution republican doctrines 
began to make rapid headway at Naples, particularly among 
the middle classes, where the influence of the French Encyclo- 
paedists had early made itself felt. 

Maria Carolina had incontestably great qualities, but she 
joined to them very grave faults, which she had neither the will 
nor the desire to master. A good wife — in spite of what Jacobin 
pamphleteers and republican historians have asserted to the 
contrary — an affectionate mother, sincerely religious, generous 
and charitable towards all, she had never learned to control the 
violence of her passions. In evil as in good, in her hatred as 
in her affections, she knew no half measures, and when the pro- 
gress of the revolutionary movement in France had rudely 
opened her eyes to the true meaning of the new ideas which 
she had formerly admired and protected, she combated them 
with a violence which bordered on frenzy. 

Goaded to fury by the terrible fate of her brother-in-law and 
sister, and encouraged by Acton, and later by the too famous 
Lady Hamilton, who from the end of 1792 became her intimate 
friend and counsellor, she determined that no quarter should be 
given either to French assassins or Neapolitan republicans. An 
alliance was concluded with England and Austria against 
France ; warships were despatched to Toulon, troops to Corsica 
and the Tyrol ; a White Terror was established at Naples ; the 
fortresses and prisons were crowded with suspects, and more 
than sixty Jacobins were sent to the scaffold. The Neapolitan 
revolution was checked for the time being, though the repressive 
measures adopted, the grinding taxation which the expenses of 
the war entailed, and the shameful manipulation of the national 
banks by the necessitous Government, alienated numbers who 
had little sympathy with liberal opinions. But everywhere 



6 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

save upon the sea the tricolour triumphed ; before its victorious 
march thrones and principalities tottered to their fall ; one after 
another the enemies of the Revolution were obliged to sue for 
peace, and in 1797, to the despair of the Queen, Naples — which 
alone of all the Italian states still defied Bonaparte — was forced 
to bend the knee to the conqueror and acknowledge the Cisalpine 
Republic at the Peace of Brescia. 

One of the most cherished plans of Maria Carolina was to 
strengthen the ties which bound the Neapolitan Bourbons to 
the House of Hapsburg by marrying her elder children J to their 
Austrian cousins. Her motives in this matter were partly 
personal and partly political. She was warmly attached to her 
relatives at Vienna and Florence ; she disliked the feeble 
Carlos IV., and detested his intriguing consort, who had made 
proposals for alliances between their children and Ferdinand's 
and she resented the ascendency which Spain exercised in 
Neapolitan affairs. Moreover, when the Revolution broke out, 
she believed — though she was soon to discover her mistake — 
that the only hope of preserving her husband's throne lay in the 
power of Austria to effect a coalition which should stem the 
epidemic of republicanism which must soon endanger it. 

She had some difficulty in overcoming the reluctance of 
Ferdinand, who was naturally pro-Spanish in his views ; but 
Acton, anxious to undermine the influence of a Power which 
had been consistently hostile to Great Britain throughout the 
eighteenth century, used all his persuasions in the same direction ; 
and in 1791 her dream was realised, and at the family council at 
Vienna which followed the death of the Emperor Joseph II., 
three marriages were arranged : one that of her eldest daughter 
Maria to Leopold II.'s heir, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, soon 
to ascend the Imperial throne as Francis II, ; another between 
her second daughter, Luigia Amalia, and the Archduke 
Ferdinand ; and a third between Francesco, Duke of Calabria, 
Hereditary Prince of the Two Sicilies, and the Archduchess 
Maria Clementina. 

The last of these marriages, which is the only one of the 
three with which we need concern ourselves here, was celebrated 
on June 15, 1797, at Foggia, the Prince-Royal being then in his 

1 Maria Carolina had borne her husband no fewer than eighteen children, of 
whom, however, only six lived to grow up. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 7 

twentieth year, 1 and his bride in her sixteenth. Their married 
life was of very brief duration, which was the more unfortunate, 
since it appears to have been a singularly happy one. The 
young prince, who reigned later under the name of Francis I. 
of the Two Sicilies, had received a very different education 
from that of his father ; indeed, his teachers seem to have been 
animated by the desire to atone for the paternal deficiencies by 
making the son a kind of walking encyclopaedia. He is said to 
have been able to converse in ancient and modern Greek, 
Latin, French, Spanish, English and German, and his know- 
ledge was as solid as it was extensive. To his intellectual 
gifts he appears to have joined many others, for his wife 
declares in one of her letters that she " loved him tenderly and 
could not thank Providence enough for having given her one 
who united all the qualities of the heart to much intelligence, 
to a great fund of piety, and to a handsome face." 2 

As for Maria Clementina, she was, notwithstanding very 
delicate health, a lively and amiable girl, who speedily won the 
affection of her husband and all the Royal Family. In the 
letter already cited, she speaks in the warmest terms of the 
kindness with which she was treated by the King and Queen, 
and gives some interesting details of her life at Naples : 

" The King and Queen overwhelm me with kindness and 
regard me as their own child ; there is no little attention which 
mamma (Maria Carolina) does not show me, and it would seem 
as though her sole occupation, from morning until night, was to 
oblige me and to give me pleasure. . . . We are on extremely 
affectionate terms with my sisters-in-law and little brothers-in- 
law, and our greatest pleasure is to meet together to pass the 
evenings or afternoons. We dine every day en famille, and 
also take long drives into the environs, which are superb ; the 
high roads, all bordered with trees, appear like parks and 
gardens ; you see the vines filled with grapes, forming garlands 
which stretch from one tree to another, and the trees are so near 
together that they interfere with the view. One has no concep- 
tion of the beauty of the country unless one has seen it, and 
every day it pleases me more. The Court is established on an 
even grander footing than the one I have left, which pleases 

1 He was born in August 1777, and not in 1779, as the Vicomte de Reiset states 
in his admirable monograph on the early life of the Duchesse de Berry. 

2 Published by the Vicomte de Reiset, Marie- Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. 



8 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

me, since, in these times, it is more necessary than ever to 
impress the people. That is what their Majesties are con- 
tinually saying, and my husband and I are of the same opinion. 
Mesdames de France are established at Caserta ; they appear 
to be contented there. When we are there, we see them 
nearly every day ; they are very amiable and extremely 
intelligent." x 

On November 5, 1798, at the Palace of Caserta, the princess 
gave birth to a daughter, who was baptized Maria Carolina 
Ferdinanda Luisa, although, as she is better known to history by 
the gallicized form of her name, it is by that that we propose to 
speak of her. This little girl was the future Duchesse de Berry, 
the subject of the present volume. 

Caroline had a singular childhood. " Born in an epoch of 
trouble and revolution," writes her earliest historian, " her first 
impressions were grave and serious. Her ears were early 
accustomed to the sounds of war, to the ominous pealing of 
the bells, to the thunder of cannon, to the clamour of the popu- 
lace, as well as to the roaring of tempestuous seas. Thus, her 
infancy served an apprenticeship which was one day to be of 
service to her youth. Later, when she had to cross the ocean 
and the Mediterranean, when she was obliged to brave all 
dangers, endure all fatigues, and lead the life of battle-fields, 
that vigorous soul which her childhood had tempered for her 
came again to her support, and she recognised in danger the 
old companion of her earliest years." 2 

At the moment of her birth, Maria Carolina, encouraged by 
Nelson's great victory over the French fleet at the Battle of the 
Nile, and Urged on by Emma Hamilton, who acted as the 
British Admiral's mouthpiece, had persuaded Ferdinand to 
abandon the nominal neutrality to which the Peace of Brescia 
had condemned Naples, and to renew his alliance with 
England. At the end of October, 1798, the King and the 
Austrian general, Mack, whom, at his wife's instigation, he had 
summoned from Vienna to command the Neapolitan forces, 

1 Mesdames Adelaide and Victoire de France, daughters of Louis XV., had 
emigrated after the days of October and eventually taken refuge at Naples, where 
they were very hospitably received. After the flight of the Royal Family to Palermo 
in December 1 798, they made their way to Trieste, where they both died soon after- 
wards, within a few months of one another. 

2 Alfred Nettement, Souvenirs sur S.A.R. Madame, la duchesse de Berri 
(Brussels, 1837). 




[i, i— I 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 9 

advanced on Rome, with the intention of expelling the French 
and re-establishing the temporal supremacy of the unfortunate 
Pius VI. The French troops, of whom there were only a few 
in Rome, retired on their approach, and on November 27 the 
Neapolitans took possession of the city, and Ferdinand wrote 
to the Pope, begging him to return. 

But this success was very short-lived. Championnet, having 
concentrated the French forces, assumed the offensive. Mack, 
though a brave man, was quite incompetent, and the raw levies 
of which his army was largely composed had no stomach for 
battle. By the second week in December, Rome had been 
re-taken, and the Neapolitans were in disorderly retreat. The 
Jacobins at Naples, overjoyed at the reverses of the royal troops, 
sent messages to Championnet, begging him to hasten to their 
assistance, and promising him an easy conquest. They no 
longer troubled to disguise their sentiments ; continual conflicts 
took place between them and the lazzaroni, who, by a singular 
inversion of the usual order of things, were by far the most 
conservative element in the population, and the city became a 
prey to anarchy. 

Perceiving the impossibility of resisting the victorious 
French and their partisans, and that, if the King and Queen 
remained at Naples, the fate which had befallen Louis XVI. 
and Marie Antoinette would certainly overtake them, Nelson, 
who had arrived at the beginning of December, pressed upon 
them the urgent necessity of taking refuge in Sicily, whither 
the British squadron should escort them. The proud Queen 
resisted for some time, declaring that she preferred death to 
dishonour, but at length she yielded, and preparations for the 
exodus of the Royal Family were at once begun. A subter- 
ranean passage led from the palace to the Molesiglio, or little 
quay, and along this all the valuable property, both public and 
private, which could possibly be removed without exciting 
suspicion was, with infinite secrecy and caution, transported to 
the ships in the -bay. By the night of December 21 all was in 
readiness for flight. The Royal Family, guided by Nelson him- 
self, descended the secret passage to the Molesiglio, where boats 
from the British squadron awaited them, and were soon safely 
aboard the admiral's flagship, the Vanguard. 

For two days the fugitives, detained by contrary winds, 
remained in the Bay of Naples, and scarcely had they gained 



io A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the open sea, when they were assailed by what Nelson declared 
to have been the most violent gale in his long recollection. 
The sails of the Vanguard were torn to ribbons ; her masts bent 
like twigs before the hurricane, and the crew, expecting every 
moment to see them go by the board, stood waiting with axes 
to cut them away. All the unfortunate royalties were dread- 
fully ill, and the youngest of Maria Carolina's children, Prince 
Alberto, a delicate boy of seven, was attacked by convulsions ; 
and when, on the evening of Christmas Day, the tempest-tossed 
vessel entered the harbour of Palermo, the poor child had ceased 
to live. 

Sicily had been practically unaffected by the revolutionary 
propaganda which had worked so much mischief on the main- 
land, and the Royal Family were received with transports of 
enthusiasm by all classes in the island. They stood sadly in 
need of the consolation which the loyalty of the Sicilians afforded 
them, for three weeks after their departure from Naples, the 
French, in spite of the vigorous resistance of the lazzaroni, 
occupied the capital, and the Parthenopean Republic — so 
called from the ancient name of the city — was proclaimed. 

But the republic was of very brief duration. The victories 
of the Austro-Russian army, commanded by Souvaroff, in 
Upper Italy compelled France to recall her troops from the 
rest of the peninsula. The jpepublican governments established 
by the French were overthrown, and many prominent Italians 
who had compromised themselves by supporting the new ideas, 
were obliged to emigrate. Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, that 
warlike prelate who boasted of employing in turn the keys of 
St. Peter and the sword of St. Paul, at the head of a motley 
host of peasants, brigands, and liberated convicts, among whom 
was the notorious bandit chief Fra Diavolo, reconquered Naples 
for Ferdinand, and, on June 20, 1799, entered the capital in 
triumph. 

A bloody reaction at once set in. The cardinal had 
promised the Neapolitan " patriots " a full amnesty ; but the 
trials and humiliations he had undergone had aroused the dor- 
mant cruelty in Ferdinand's nature, and he absolutely refused 
to be bound by the terms of this capitulation, 1 and wreaked 

1 On the vexed question of the repudiation of the capitulation, and in particular 
of Nelson's share in it, see Mr. Walter Sichel's "Emma, Lady Hamilton" and an 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 11 

savage vengeance upon the leading spirits of the republican 
movement. Both the Queen and Emma Hamilton, although 
French and Italian historians have usually depicted them as the 
chief instigators of these reprisals, endeavoured to moderate 
the King's vindictiveness, but without success, and the scaffold 
was glutted with victims. Neither age, sex, rank nor virtue 
was spared, and the physician, Dominico Cirillo, the his- 
torian Conforti, and the poetess Eleonora de Pimentel shared 
the fate of the most blood-stained Jacobins ; while the 
treacherous Admiral Francesco Caracciolo was hanged from the 
yardarm of his old flagship, the Minerva, upon which he had 
fired. 1 

Ferdinand had returned to Naples soon after the surrender 
of the city to Rufifo, but the Prince and Princess-Royal and their 
little daughter remained at Palermo until the summer of the 
following year, while the Queen, who, since the disastrous result 
of the renewal of the war with France, had lost her ascendency 
over her husband, went with her younger children on a visit to 
Vienna, and did not reappear at Naples until the beginning of 
May 1802. 

When the Princess-Royal returned to the Neapolitan capital, 
the trial and execution of the adherents of the Parthenopean 
Republic were still in progress. Among those awaiting their 
doom was a certain Luisa di Sanfelice, a young woman of great 
beauty and of considerable accomplishments, but of a very 
abandoned life. During the weeks which had preceded the 
surrender of Naples to Ruffo, several conspiracies had been set 
on foot by the royalists for the recovery of the city. One of 
the best organized of these had for its guiding spirits, a banker 
named Vincenzo Baccher and his four sons. Unhappily for the 
conspirators, one of the sons, Gerardo Baccher, had conceived a 
violent passion for the fascinating Luisa, and was so foolish as 
to disclose what was in contemplation to his mistress, in order 
that she might provide for her own safety. Luisa, who cared 
only for the Baccher money-bags, and nothing at all for their 
owner, showed her gratitude by promptly passing on the secret 

article by Professor Villari, published in the Nuova Antologia of February 16, 
1899. 

1 Much commiseration has been wasted by historians upon this personage, who 
appears to have been a double-dyed traitor and thoroughly to have merited death, if 
not the manner of it. 



12 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

to her amant de cazur, a violent " patriot " ; l with the result 
that most of the conspirators were arrested and shot, the impru- 
dent Gerardo and one of his brothers amongst them ; while Luisa 
was lauded to the skies as the saviour of the republic. 

When the republic ceased to exist, and Ferdinand, thirsting 
for revenge, returned, Luisa paid for the prominence which she 
had enjoyed by being brought to trial and condemned to death. 
Thereupon she declared that she was with child, and, though 
this appears to have been merely a ruse to save her life, her case 
excited the compassion of the tender-hearted Princess-Royal, 
who was herself in an interesting condition, and she determined 
to procure a commutation of the sentence. A few days before 
the date fixed for the execution, the princess gave birth to a son, 
who was baptized Ferdinand, after his grandfather. Now, there 
was a custom at the Neapolitan Court that, on the birth of a 
boy in the direct line of succession, the mother was entitled to 
ask three favours of the King. In order the better to ensure the 
success of her application, Maria Clementina asked only one 
— the life of Luisa di Sanfelice — and, as his Majesty had 
announced his intention of coming to pay his grandson a visit, 
she enclosed her petition in an envelope addressed to the King, 
which she laid upon the child's cradle. 

This pathetic manoeuvre, however, was of no avail, for 
Ferdinand, after reading the petition, curtly told his daughter- 
in-law that she had asked the one favour that he was unable to 
grant, and, though the princess entreated him to reconsider his 
decision, he remained inflexible, and the sentence passed upon 
Luisa di Sanfelice was duly carried out. 2 

The poor princess, who had never doubted that her appeal 
would be successful, took the tragic end of her protegie so much 
to heart that her convalescence was seriously retarded, and she 
was still in very feeble health when, some weeks later, she had 
the misfortune to lose her little son. From this blow she never 

1 Some writers assert that this lover was Vincenzo Coco, the Jacobin historian 
and renegade, who afterwards attached himself to the Bourbons ; others that his 
name was Ferri, and that he was a lieutenant in the service of the Parthenopean 
Republic. 

2 In extenuation of Ferdinand's conduct, it should be pointed out that he appears 
to have promised the surviving members of the Baccher family that nothing should be 
allowed to interfere with the course of justice, and probably felt that it was impossible 
to break his word to these loyal subjects, who had made such cruel sacrifices for 
him. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 13 

recovered. A chill which she contracted not long afterwards, 
following upon an attack of fever, which had still further 
undermined her scanty reserve of strength, developed into rapid 
consumption, from which she died on November 16, 1801, to the 
inexpressible grief of all the Royal Family. 



CHAPTER II 

Respect of the Princess Caroline for her mother's memory — Second marriage of 
her father — Her early years — Ferdinand, at the instigation of the Queen, joins the 
Third Coalition — The French advance against Naples, and the Royal Family is 
again compelled to take refuge at Palermo — Second sojourn of the Court in Sicily — 
Girlhood of the Princess Caroline — Her education — Maria Carolina's affection for her 
— Arrival of the Due d'Orleans at Palermo — His marriage with the Princess Amalia 
— Troubles in Sicily — Maria Carolina and Lord William Bentinck — Establishment 
of a "constitution on the English model — Bentinck insists on the departure of the 
Queen from Sicily, and she is compelled to retire to Austria — Maria Carolina and 
the Empress Marie Louise at the Castle of Hetzendorf — Death of the Queen — Grief 
of the Princess Caroline — Her resentment against Bentinck, whom she regards as her 
grandmother's "murderer " — Second restoration of Ferdinand. 

r I ^HE future Duchesse de Berry was only three years old 
at the time of her mother's death. " I was then too 

J. young to be able to remember her," she wrote after- 

wards in her journal ; " but I have found ineffaceable souvenirs 
of her in the hearts of all the persons who have had the happi- 
ness to approach her and admire her virtues. May Heaven 
accord to her prayers the favour which I implore of labouring 
to deserve them, her virtues, her enlightened piety, her benevo- 
lence, in a word, all which sustains my regret for not having 
known her ! How I would have cherished her ! I judge of this 
from the sentiments I experience for the second and tender 
mother whom Heaven has given me in the person of H.R.H. 
the Infanta Maria Isabella of Spain, who overwhelms me with 
unfailing kindness." x 

The Infanta Maria Isabella, of whom the writer speaks in 
such high terms, was the daughter of Carlos IV. of Spain, and 
the sister of Ferdinand VII. She became the second wife of 
the Prince-Royal on July 6, 1802, only eight months after the 
death of poor Maria Clementina, the necessity of assuring the 

1 Pricis des tvhiements de ma vie depuis mon enfance jusque mon mariage avec le 
due de Berry, cited by Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de 
Louis XVIII. 

14 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 15 

succession in the direct line, having compelled Francis to curtail 
the usual period of widowhood. She bore her husband eleven 
children, among whom were Ferdinand Charles, Duke of Nolo, 
who succeeded his father as Ferdinand II. of the Two Sicilies, 
and Maria Christina, who became, in 1829, the fourth wife 
of Ferdinand VII. of Spain. 

Fortunately for the little Caroline, she had not inherited her 
mother's delicate constitution, and, though she had her fair 
share of juvenile ailments, they left no permanent effect upon 
her health, and she grew up a strong, lively and intelligent 
child. Her education was conducted with great care, first under 
the superintendence of Madame de Dombasle, who had been 
gonvei'iiante to her mother at Vienna, and afterwards under that 
of the Comtesse de la Tour, 1 of both of whom she speaks in her 
journal with great affection, as well as of two of her tutors, a 
bishop named Olivieri, and a certain Don Paolo Giovanini, " a 
worthy ecclesiastic, who also has claims on my remembrance and 
my gratitude, for the patience and zeal which he employed in my 
instruction." 

In January 1806, when the little princess was seven years 
old, her family was for the second time obliged to fly from 
Naples and take refuge in Sicily. After Napoleon's victorious 
campaign of Marengo had laid Italy once more at his feet, 
Ferdinand was compelled to make peace with France, amnesty 
the Neapolitan Jacobins, and allow French troops to occupy his 
dominions, as a guarantee for his future good behaviour. Both 
the King and Maria Carolina chafed beneath the insolence of 
the conqueror, who in 1803 insisted on the dismissal of Acton, 
on the ground that, being an Englishman, he must necessarily 
be hostile to French interests. In 1805, at the instigation of 
the Queen, who had recovered much of her former influence 
over her husband, Ferdinand joined the Third Coalition and 
permitted 13,000 English and Russian troops to disembark at 
Naples. But Ulm and Austerlitz having left Napoleon free to 
deal with his enemies in Italy, a French army was despatched 
to Naples, "to cast from the throne that guilty woman who 
has so often and with so much effrontery profaned every 
law, human and divine " ; the Royal Family fled to Palermo, 

1 Marie Louise Henriette d'Heillimer. She and her husband were among the 
many French aristocrats who had found an asylum at Naples. She died in that city 
in 1857, at the age of ninety-two. 



16 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and Joseph Bonaparte reigned in Ferdinand's stead at Naples 
until 1808, when the ill-fated Murat succeeded him. 

By a singular coincidence, the elements were even less pro- 
pitious than on the occasion of their former exodus in 1798 ; 
and though, after battling with wind and sea for five days, the 
Archimede, the vessel which bore the Royal Family, arrived 
safely at Palermo, many of her consorts were driven ashore on 
the Neapolitan coast, and most of the property of the unfortu- 
nate courtiers and of the costly furniture which had been 
removed from the Palazzo Reale at Naples, the artillery, and 
the archives of the Foreign Office fell into the hands of the 
French. 

The second sojourn of the Court in Sicily, which lasted 
more than nine years, was a much more trying experience than 
the first. The loss of the furniture intended to transform the 
bare and dilapidated royal palace at Palermo into a habitable 
abode was a bitter disappointment ; money was so scarce that 
the Royal Family were compelled to dismiss the greater num- 
ber of their attendants ; the burden of the war and the favour 
shov/n by the King and Queen to the Neapolitan loyalists 
who crowded to the island were strongly resented by the inhabi- 
tants and cost them much of their former popularity, and for 
some time they were in constant dread lest the French, not 
satisfied with the conquest of Naples, should invade Sicily also. 

Maria Carolina, who had always disliked Sicily, was in 
despair, and wrote to the Empress of Germany that her 
daughters, the Princesses Christina and Amalia, " mingled their 
tears with hers." But Ferdinand, who preserved in the midst 
of the gravest crises his jovial and careless humour, 1 and was 
now able to lead a life free from all constraint and to enjoy 
much greater facilities for sport than he found at Naples, was 
happy enough with his gun, his fishing-rod, and his mistresses. 

1 " I hear from Palermo that the same day that the King arrived there he went to 
the theatre, and the following day to the chase, and that he has assisted regularly at 
all the public balls that have been given during the Carnival. The indifference and 
apathy of this prince are certainly very difficult to understand. On the day on which 
he was obliged to fly from Naples, he refused to embark until after he had been to 
the play, and the last word that he spoke, before all his Court, on leaving this palace, 
where he had reigned for forty-seven years and which he is never to enter again, was 
as follows : ' Let them not forget to bring my supper on board and to keep it hot.' " 
Despatch of Alquier, French Ambassador at Naples, to Talleyrand, February 26, 
1806, in Imbert de Saint-Amand, Marie- AmiHe et la Cour de Palerme. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 17 

The Prince-Royal and his placid, good-humoured Spanish 
wife seemed also quite resigned to their fate. The Prince, like 
his father, was fond of a country-life, and divided his time 
between two little estates which he had purchased at Monreale 
and Bocco di Falco, where he lived the unpretentious life of a 
small landed-proprietor, amusing himself with sport and farm- 
ing and sending his butter and the game which he shot to the 
nearest market. 

Among these healthy and unconventional surroundings, so 
widely different from those amidst which most royal children 
were reared, the little Princess Caroline passed her girlhood. 
The years went by happily enough, for in the numerous offspring 
of Francis's second marriage she found plenty of young com- 
panions, and, though, according to the Queen, the Princess- 
Royal often declared that she hated children, she seems to have 
been kind enough to her step-daughter, while the Prince was 
the best of fathers. Under the judicious guidance of Madame 
de la Tour, her education, at the same time, made satisfactory 
progress, for, notwithstanding that she was naturally somewhat 
indolent, and that the independence of character which she 
very early showed inclined her to rebel against such studies as 
required serious application, she was extremely intelligent, and 
her goiivernante happily possessed the rare faculty of combining 
amusement with instruction. The young princess was very 
fond of history, and loved to read of the glories and misfortunes 
of the House of Bourbon ; she spoke and wrote French almost 
as fluently as she did Italian, though her accent left a good deal 
to be desired, and orthography always remained somewhat of 
a stumbling-block; she was a fair musician, possessed some 
skill in both drawing and painting, and had a genuine love for 
the arts, of which in later years she was to become a munificent 
patroness. 

Occasionally, she accompanied her father and step-mother 
on visits to her grandparents at Palermo — or rather to Maria 
Carolina, since Ferdinand seldom honoured the Sicilian capital 
with his presence, unless summoned thither by State affairs. 
Here she was always assured of a cordial welcome, for the old 
Queen, so arrogant and haughty towards the world, and so 
violent in her political animosities, was in private life the kindest 
and most sympathetic of women, and the little motherless girl 
was very near to her heart. After the death of the first Princess- 



i8 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Royal, she had promised Caroline " to love her and treat her 
always as her own daughter," and, down to the time of her own 
death, in 1813, she showed for the child the most affectionate 
solicitude. Here is an interesting letter which she wrote to her 
grand-daughter on the latter's twelfth birthday, an anniversary 
which she took care that nothing should ever cause her to 
forget : — 

" My very dear Caroline, 

" Receive my sincere felicitations on the occasion of 
your fete-day, and the assurance of the good wishes that I 
cherish for your happiness and prosperity. Accept a real trifle, 
which the circumstances in which we are placed do not permit 
me to make what my heart would desire. You are now entering 
on an age which will determine the rest of your life. Strive, 
my dear child, to take advantage of this precious time to confirm 
yourself in the principles of our holy religion, to instruct your- 
self, to acquire useful and agreeable accomplishments, and to 
improve. My wishes will always be for your happiness, and to 
have the power of contributing to it will be the happiness of 
your very attached and affectionate grandmother." * 

It was during one of her visits to Palermo — in the early 
summer of 1808 — that the princess, who was then nine years 
old, saw for the first time a man who was to exercise a sinister 
influence on her life and deprive her children of their rightful 
heritage. She was sitting with the Queen in her cabinet, when 
the King, who happened to be making one of his rare sojourns 
in the capital, entered with an open letter in his hand and a 
frown on his usually good-humoured countenance. 

"Here," said he, holding out the letter, "is an exile belong- 
ing to a great family whom misfortune pursues, for he has just 
lost his only surviving brother at Malta. 2 He has landed at 
Messina. Would you be displeased if I were to invite him to 
my Court ? " 

1 Vicomte de Reiset, Mark-Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. 

2 Alphonse d'Orleans, Comte de Beaujolais. The previous year, his second 
brother, Antoine Philippe d'Orleans, Due de Montpensier, had died in London. 
Both these princes, the elder aged thirty-one, the younger twenty-eight, died of con- 
sumption, the seeds of which they had contracted in the cold and unhealthy dungeons 
of Marseilles. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 19 

" What is his name ? " inquired the Queen. 

" The Due d'Orleans," was the reply. 

The princess afterwards declared that at the mention of the 
name of the future King of the French she experienced a pain- 
ful emotion — a kind of presentiment of the part which Louis- 
Philippe was to play in her life. But this feeling soon passed 
away, and the impression which the prince made upon her when 
they met was not an unfavourable one. 

Conscious of the prejudice which must exist in the most 
reactionary court in Europe against the son of the regicide 
" Egaliti" and a man who had himself fought in the revolutionary 
armies at Valmy and Jemmapes, the Due d'Orleans did not 
venture to present himself there without being authorised to do 
so, and accordingly wrote a very respectful letter to Ferdinand, 
in which he assured him that he deeply deplored his father's 
errors, and was sincerely desirous of proving how far he was 
from sharing them. In these circumstances, it was impossible 
for their Majesties to refuse to receive him, and he was very 
hospitably entertained, although the Queen afterwards owned 
to the prince that she had had the greatest horror of meeting 
him, and that the very mention of his name made her shudder. 
This prejudice, however, Louis-Philippe soon succeeded in 
effacing. He appeared as a penitent, who had renounced the 
aberrations of his youth and become one of the most fervent 
champions of legitimacy, and, convinced of the sincerity of his 
contrition, the implacable Maria Carolina consented to accord 
him absolution. His insinuating manners, the charm of his 
conversation, the strange vicissitudes he had experienced, his 
touching devotion to his relatives, the courage and patience 
with which he had supported persecution, exile, and poverty — 
all contributed to impress his hosts in his favour. The Princess 
Amalia, now Maria Carolina's only unmarried daughter, felt for 
this proscribed prince the liveliest sympathy, and listened to 
the story of his wanderings with as much emotion as did Dido 
to those of ^Eneas. Sympathy was ere long succeeded by a 
warmer feeling, and when Louis-Philippe, deeply touched by 
her kindness, and aware that nothing would more effectually 
serve to rehabilitate him in the eyes of his relatives than his 
marriage with a niece of Marie Antoinette and a daughter of 
the most ardent champion of the ancien regime, demanded her 
hand in marriage, she was perfectly ready to accord it. 



20 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

The course of true love, however, did not run altogether 
smoothly. The Queen, anxious to keep one of her daughters 
near her, approved of the match, and Ferdinand for a time also 
favoured it ; but during Louis-Philippe's absence in Spain in 
the autumn of that year, the Marquis of Circello, Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, and other influential persons who shared the 
prejudices of the French imigris against the duke, persuaded 
the King that his prospective son-in-law was " a prince of 
measureless ambition," whose object in coming to Sicily was to 
assist the English to excite a revolution there. In consequence, 
the projected marriage remained in suspense, and it was not 
until the Princess Amalia had declared that, if she were not 
permitted to wed the man of her choice, she would become the 
bride of Heaven, that Ferdinand finally consented to their 
union, which took place at Palermo on November 25, 1809. 

When Ferdinand and Maria Carolina fled to Palermo for 
the second time, they appealed to Great Britain for protection 
in Sicily and assistance in recovering their lost kingdom of 
Naples. The British Government did not see its way to under- 
take the conquest of Naples, but it agreed to maintain Ferdinand 
in his possession of Sicily ; and the island was accordingly 
occupied by some 12,000 English troops, and an annual subsidy 
of £300,000, afterwards increased to £400,000, granted to the 
King, for the support of his Court and army. The Queen, 
however, bitterly resented the interference of her protectors in 
the internal affairs of Sicily. Irritated by the favour shown 
by the Court to the Neapolitan emigrants, who filled all the 
most important posts in the island, and the heavy taxation 
which the expenses of the war necessitated, the Sicilian Parlia- 
ment refused to grant the required subsidies. Ferdinand, at 
the Queen's instigation, retaliated by promulgating arbitrary 
decrees of taxation and causing five of the most recalcitrant 
nobles of the opposition to be arrested. The Prince-Royal 
and the Due d'Orleans — rehearsing the part which he was to 
play during the reign of Charles X. — took the side of the nobles, 
while Maria Carolina's younger son, the Prince of Salerno, 
supported his parents ; and the Royal Family was a household 
divided against itself. 

In 181 1, the British Government despatched Lord William 
Bentinck to Sicily, nominally as envoy, but practically as 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 21 

governor. Bentinck, a haughty and masterful man, had an 
interview with the Queen, in which he demanded the immediate 
release of the imprisoned nobles and the repeal of the illegal 
edicts, and told her Majesty that, unless a constitution was 
granted the island, a revolution was inevitable. " Madame," 
said he, " constitution on revolution ? " 

As Maria Carolina refused to yield, Bentinck went back to 
England, and three months later returned to Sicily, armed with 
the fullest powers. Finding the Queen still deaf to reason, he had 
recourse to threats, and told her that he had authority to suspend 
the annual subsidy paid by Great Britain. Maria Carolina there- 
upon withdrew from Palermo to one of her country-houses, and 
Ferdinand, left to his own devices, took refuge in a compromise, 
and, under the pretence of illness, abdicated his authority in 
favour of the Prince-Royal, upon whom he conferred the title 
of Vicar-General (January 16, 18 12). The Vicar-General, in 
conjunction with Bentinck, then proceeded to abolish feudal 
rights and establish a constitution on the English model, with 
an Upper and Lower House. But the Queen, extreme in all 
things, now hated the English as passionately as she had once 
admired them, and, with infatuated obstinacy, continued to 
struggle against the inevitable, intriguing perpetually with the 
enemies of the new constitution and urging the King to resume 
the government. At length, Bentinck, perceiving that there 
would be no rest in Sicily so long as she remained in the island, 
insisted on her withdrawal, and coerced the reluctant King, who, 
despite his continual infidelities, was sincerely attached to his 
consort, into signing the order for her departure. 

On June 15, 18 13,' Maria Carolina quitted Sicily, "chased away 
like a play-actress," as she subsequently expressed it, and, accom- 
panied by her younger son, the Prince of Salerno, journeyed to 
Austria to seek an asylum from the Emperor Francis I. The 
Emperor assigned her for a residence the Castle of Hetzendorf, 
not far from Schonbrunn, where, after the fall of Napoleon, she 
was joined by the Empress Marie Louise and the King of 
Rome, her grand-daughter and great-grandson. Napoleon's 
misfortunes and the intense hatred which the Queen now felt 
for the English had sensibly modified the sentiments she had 
once entertained for her old enemy, and she is said to have 
expressed herself very strongly to Marie Louise in regard to 
the latter's conduct towards her husband, declaring that " when 



22 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

one is married, it is for life," and that, if she had been in her 
place, she would have made a rope of her bed-curtains and let 
herself down from her window to join him. 

There was now no obstacle to Maria Carolina's return to 
Palermo, which she hoped would soon be followed by her return 
to Naples. But the Court of Vienna was still at this moment 
in favour of allowing Murat to remain in possession of Naples, 
and she demanded in vain the restitution of her husband's 
kingdom. The old Queen had long been in bad health, and 
the grief and indignation which this decision occasioned her 
is believed to have brought on the attack of apoplexy to which 
she succumbed in the night of September 7-8, 18 14. 

The Princess Caroline, who was warmly attached to her 
grandmother, learned of her death with profound sorrow. " The 
death of the Queen," she wrote afterward in her journal, " affected 
me keenly. In her I lost a support, a mother, and I have never 
ceased to regret that I was unable to be with her." 

The young princess was greatly incensed against Bentinck, 
whom she regarded as responsible for the Queen's death. Some 
years later, in Paris, she happened to be visiting her aunt, the 
Duchess d'Orleans, at the Palais- Royal, when she perceived that 
Bentinck was amongst the company. Visibly embarrassed, she at 
once turned round and left the room, without a word of explana- 
tion. Next day, her aunt inquired the reason of this abrupt 
departure. To which she replied : " I could not look on with 
composure while so cordial a reception was being given to a 
man whom I regard as your mother's murderer ! " 

Eight months after the death of his consort, Ferdinand, 
thanks to Murat's ill-advised attack upon Austria during the 
Hundred Days, was once more reigning at Naples, where he now 
abandoned the title of Ferdinand IV. of Naples and Ferdinand 
III. of Sicily, and assumed that of Ferdinand I. of the Two 
Sicilies. 



CHAPTER III 

Portrait of the Princess Caroline at the age of seventeen — Her affection for Sicily 
— Arrival of the Comte de Blacas at Naples to propose a marriage between her and 
the Due de Berry — Political considerations which induced Louis XVIII. to seek 
this alliance— The proposition favourably received by Ferdinand and the Prince- 
Royal, who, however, leave the princess free to decide for herself — Blacas comes to 
Palermo — The princess gives her consent — Portrait of her by Blacas — Letters of 
Louis XVIII. and the Due de Berry to the princess, and of the princess to the Due de 
Berry — The princess returns to Naples — The marriage-contract — The marriage by 
procuration — Letters of the princess and the Due de Berry — Illness of the princess — 
She sails for Marseilles. 

A T the time of the final restoration of her family to the 
/\ throne of Naples, the Princess Caroline was in her 
Jl V eighteenth year. Only by the most unabashed of 
flatterers could she be called beautiful, but her appearance was, 
nevertheless, distinctly pleasing. The Vicomte de Reiset, grand- 
father of one of her most recent biographers, who saw her for the 
first time on his arrival in France in the spring of 1816, when 
he commanded the Gardes du Corps, who formed part of her 
escort, has left us the following interesting portrait of the 
young princess : 

" It is certain that the princess is not regularly pretty, but 
her dazzling complexion, her blue eyes, and her fair hair lend 
her a great charm. She is slender, and her little figure is well 
made, although her bust is not much developed. Finally, her 
features would be charming, were it not that her mouth which 
pouts a little, and whose lips are too thick, rather tends to spoil 
the rest of her face. It appears to me, also, that she keeps it 
almost constantly open, but her lips are so red and her teeth 
so white, that one does not think of complaining of it. This 
dazzling freshness is what strikes one the most in her person, 
and her air of extreme youth is her greatest charm ; she is 
seventeen years old, and it is such that, on seeing her, one would 
scarcely take her for fifteen. Further, her interesting counte- 
nance betrays the sweetest of natures. I have heard it repeated 

23 



24 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

in several quarters that she has a cast in her right eye which 
causes her to squint ; but I have seen her for a long time very 
closely, and I confess that I have not observed anything of this 
kind ; she has one of the most agreeable glances and perfectly 
straight." * 

From other contemporaries we learn that she had a singularly 
charming smile, extremely mobile features, and, though the 
awkwardness natural to her age had been intensified by the 
solitary life she had led in Sicily, it was believed that when she 
had mixed a little more in society, it would speedily disappear. 

Attractive as Caroline undoubtedly was in person, in 
character she was still more pleasing. Simple and unaffected, 
amiable, joyous, kind-hearted and affectionate, she was sincerely 
beloved by her relatives and by all who knew her intimately. 
Somewhat timid and reserved with strangers of rank, she was 
fond of conversing with the peasants and fishermen she met in 
her walks and rides, having been accustomed to familiarity 
with them from childhood, and was very popular with the 
lower classes. Like her mother and grandmother, she was a 
devout Catholic, though without any leaning to asceticism, and 
there was in her a strong vein of romance, which had been 
encouraged by her study of history. This, joined to an 
obstinate and passionate nature and exceptional physical 
courage, was to lead her to dare and suffer many things in the 
troublous years which lay before her. 

The young princess did not return to Naples with Ferdinand, 
but remained with her parents at Palermo, where, since his 
appointment as Vicar-General of Sicily, the Prince-Royal had 
been obliged to reside. To Maria Carolina that lovely and 
picturesque island had been a place of exile, associated with the 
bitterest humiliation of her stormy life ; to her grand-daughter, 
with her intense love of all that was beautiful in art and in 
Nature, and her romantic imagination, it was a land of 
enchantment ; and she never wearied of roaming through its 

1 Souvetiirs du Vicomte de Reiset. It is interesting to compare this portrait 
with that given by the Comtesse d'Agoult (Daniel Stern) : " She was not 
regularly pretty ; her features offered nothing remarkable ; her glance was uncertain, 
her lips thick and almost always open. She carried herself badly, and the best-dis- 
posed observers could not call her bearing noble. But this blonde Neapolitan had a 
charm of her own : a marvellous splendour of colouring, silky fair hair, the prettiest 
arms imaginable, and feet which, although turned inwards, were pleasant to look at, 
so small and well-shaped were they." 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 25 

fragrant woods and gardens and exploring its ancient temples 
and ruined castles, which recalled so many memories of the 
undying past. 

But the time was fast approaching when she must quit that 
land of sunshine and flowers not to return to Naples, but to 
journey to another country, where trials and misfortunes 
infinitely greater than those which she had hitherto experienced 
awaited her. 

At the end of October, 181 5, Louis XVIII.'s favourite, the 
Comte de Blacas, arrived at Naples, in the capacity of 
Ambassador Extraordinary, to felicitate Ferdinand on his 
restoration to the throne of the Two Sicilies. This mission, 
however, covered one of far greater importance, since he had 
received instructions to open negotiations for a marriage between 
the Princess Caroline and the Due de Berry, second son of the 
Comte d'Artois (afterwards Charles X.), only brother of the 
King of France. 

From the first days of the Restoration, the marriage of his 
younger nephew had engaged the attention of Louis XVIII., for 
both the King and Monsieur's elder son, the Due d'Angouleme, 
were childless, and it was of urgent importance to assure the 
succession to the throne in the direct line. Considerations of 
foreign policy, however, made the selection of the princess who 
was to perpetuate the race of le Grand Monarque a difficult 
matter. For, at that moment, the great Powers, whom the fear 
of Napoleon had forced to forget their differences, were divided 
into two hostile camps. On the one side, were Russia and 
Prussia, on the other, Great Britain and Austria, both eager 
for the alliance of France, who, although she had lost the 
European supremacy which she had so long exercised, would 
certainly bring it to whichever alliance she preferred to enter. 
But Louis XVIII. and his Ministers, having already experienced, 
during the first Congress of Vienna, the inconveniences of a 
decided policy in circumstances where everything was vague 
and uncertain, were resolved to hold aloof, recognising that the 
supreme need of their country at this juncture was peace, and 
that peace could only be assured by the neutrality of France. 
For which reason, the King was unwilling to seek a wife for his 
nephew either at St. Petersburg or Vienna, since to approach 
Russia would be to alarm Austria and Great Britain, while to 



26 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

incline towards Austria would be to sacrifice the advantages 
which France might be able to hope from the friendship of 
Russia. And so the project of the Due de Berry's marriage with 
a Russian princess, which had been more than once mooted, was 
definitely abandoned, and it was determined to fall back upon 
a family alliance, which could give umbrage to no one. 

Fearing to find himself forestalled by the Court of Vienna, 
which, not satisfied with the preponderating influence it had now 
acquired in Italy, was believed to be also seeking the Neapolitan 
alliance, Blacas, at his second interview, revealed to Ferdinand 
the true object of his mission. His overtures were very favour- 
ably received both by the King and the Prince-Royal, to whom 
his Majesty lost no time in communicating them. Save for the 
difference in age — Caroline's suitor was more than twenty years 
her senior — the match was one in every way to be desired. 
Not only was their pride flattered by the knowledge that, in the 
ordinary course of events, their descendants must occupy the 
throne of France ; but they perceived that an alliance with the 
French Bourbons would strengthen the position of the King of 
the Two Sicilies both at home and abroad, and enable him to 
maintain his independence in the face of the pretensions of 
Austria to dominate the peninsula. 

Though highly pleased with the idea, neither Ferdinand nor 
his son were prepared to exercise any pressure upon the young 
princess, and they frankly told Blacas that he must submit his 
proposition to Caroline herself, and that, if she declined to 
entertain it, they should not attempt to influence her. The 
Ambassador accordingly proceeded to Sicily, but, owing to the 
quarantine regulations necessitated by an epidemic which was 
then ravaging the western coast of Naples, it was not until the 
beginning of February 1816 that he was able to land at Palermo. 
The princess had already been acquainted by her father with the 
demand which had been made for her hand, and, though she 
had been allowed full liberty to decide for herself, " she made no 
use of it, except to conform with pleasure and confidence to 
whatever her dear parents desired." * 

That Caroline was well satisfied with the arrangement, and 
that, in this instance, duty and inclination found themselves in 
complete harmony, can scarcely be doubted. To be the second 

1 Duchesse de Berry, Precis des ivenements de ma vie, cited by Imbert de Saint- 
Amand, la duchesse de Berry et la cour de Louis XVIII. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 27 

lady, and eventually the first, in that Court which had once been 
the most brilliant in Europe and would probably become so 
again, and of whose former splendours she must have heard so 
much from her French goiivernante, Madame de la Tour ; to 
share one day the throne of that country which had been the 
cradle of her race, and before whose all-conquering armies the 
nations had lately bowed in abject submission, was a prospect 
calculated to make an irresistible appeal to the imagination of 
a young girl who, we are told, had always felt persuaded that a 
brilliant destiny awaited her. It was true that the prince who 
sought her hand was almost as old as her own father, and had 
once been the suitor of her aunt, the Duchesse d'Orleans. But he 
was still only on the threshold of middle age, handsome, brave, 
good-natured and — she may possibly have heard — a great 
favourite with the opposite sex ; while the trials and hardships 
which he, like all the other members of his family, had under- 
gone inclined her to regard him with that sympathetic interest 
which is so often a prelude to a sincere attachment. 

When therefore M. de Blacas was released from the lazaretto 
and permitted to wait upon the princess, the young lady, with 
many blushes, intimated to him that the object of his mission 
had been attained, upon which the gallant Frenchman lost no 
time in begging for a portrait of her Royal Highness, which 
might give the Due de Berry some feeble idea of the charms of 
his future bride. His request was granted, but, as, according to 
the count, the painter, whose name he mercifully suppresses, 
" had not acquired the first principles of his art," and his work 
was the very reverse of flattering, he felt it his duty to remove 
the unfavourable impression it might create, by accompanying it 
with a pen-portrait, which depicts the princess as possessing 
" a face which is agreeable, without being regularly pretty ; 
some talent and great taste for music ; a very sweet and very 
timid nature ; not so much grace as she might easily acquire — 
which he attributes to the fact that the Prince- Royal had refused 
to allow her to have a dancing master ; teeth which will be good 
when they have been properly attended to ; and a figure rather 
like that of Madame de la Ferronays." l 

On hearing of the success of his Ambassador's overtures, 
Louis XVIII. hastened to address himself directly to Caroline, 
to intercede in his nephew's favour. Here is the letter : 
1 See page 33, infra. 



28 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

" Madame my sister and niece, 

" It is under the auspices of the King, your grandfather, 
and of the Prince, your father, that I demand of your Royal 
Highness the happiness of a nephew who is very dear to me, and 
I shall dare to say my own. Your august parents consent to 
your marriage with the Due de Berry, and I entreat you to give 
your consent also. My testimony in favour of him whom I 
regard as my son may seem open to suspicion ; yet believe 
that I should have enough control over my dearest affections to 
renounce the hope which animates me, did I not have the 
certainty of assuring your happiness as much as that of the 
Due de Berry. I have nothing to add to this profession of 
faith, and I conclude by praying your Royal Highness to count 
always on the very tender sentiments with which I am, Madame, 
my sister and niece, your Royal Highness's very affectionate 
brother and uncle, 

" Louis 

" Paris, 5 February 1816." 

The Due de Berry also wrote to the young lady to plead 
his own cause : 

" Paris, 18 February 1816. 

" Madame my sister and cousin, 

" It has for a long time been my desire to obtain 
the consent of the King, your grandfather, and of the Prince, 
your father, to formulate a demand on which depends the 
happiness of my life ; but, before obtaining their approval, 
I approach your Royal Highness to entreat that you will 
deign to confide to me the happiness of your life, by uniting 
it with mine. I venture to flatter myself that age, experience, 
and long adversity have disciplined me sufficiently to render 
me worthy to be your husband, guide, and friend. On leaving 
parents so worthy of your love, you will find here a family 
which will remind you of patriarchal times. What can I tell 
you of the King, of my father, of my brother, and, above all, of 
that angel, the Duchesse d'Angouleme, 1 that you have not 
already heard, unless it be that their virtues, their goodness, 

1 Marie Th£rese Charlotte de Fiance (Madame Royale), daughter of Louis 
XVI. and Marie Antoinette. She had married the Due d'Angouleme, eldest son of 
the Comte d'Artois, in 1799. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 29 

are above all praise. The most perfect union reigns among 
us, and it is never disturbed. All my relatives unanimously 
desire that your Royal Highness should crown my wishes and 
consent to augment the number of the children of our family. 
Consent, Madame, to yield to my prayers, and to hasten the 
moment when I can lay at your feet the homage of the respect- 
ful and tender sentiments, with which I am, Madame, my sister 
and cousin, your Royal Highness's very affectionate brother 
and cousin, 

11 Charles Ferdinand " l 

After the formal proposal for her hand had been made by 
Blacas to Ferdinand, and accepted by the King, the princess 
replied to this letter as follows : 

"April 13. 

"Monsieur my brother and cousin, 

"Encouraged by the permission of the King my 
grandfather and of my loving father, I venture to express to 
your Royal Highness how much my heart is penetrated by 
gratitude by the fact that you have wished to select me for your 
consort. The consent of my dear and adored parents to this 
union assures your Royal Highness of mine, since I have never 
had any other wish than theirs ; and their affection, their constant 
care for my happiness, have rendered this duty very easy to 
discharge. In the grief that I experience in separating from 
them, I find a great consolation in the certainty which your 
Royal Highness gives me of finding again in his family the 
same virtues, the same gentle ways, the same union, and in 
your Royal Highness a friend, a guide, who, deigning to charge 
himself with the happiness of my life, will proceed to teach me 
to employ all my feeble means to ensure his, and to render 
myself worthy of the protection of his Majesty the King, and 
of him whom I shall have the happiness of calling by the sweet 

1 Most of the letters which passed between the princess and the Due de Berry, 
from this time until their meeting, at Fontainebleau, in the following June, will be 
found in Chateaubriand {Memoires lettres et pieces authenliques touchant la vie et la 
mort de S.A.J?. Mgr. Charles Ferdinand d'Arlois, jftls de France, due de Berry, 
Paris, 1820), or in Nettement. The Vicomte de Reiset has, however, been able to 
add to this interesting collection several which had not been communicated to these 
writers, or which were considered too sacred for publication during the lifetime of the 
Duchesse de Berry. 



30 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

name of father (the Comte d'Artois), and of imitating the 
virtues of their Royal Highnesses, the Due and Duchesse 
d'Angouleme. I beg your Royal Highness to be persuaded 
that the occupation of my life will be to prevent him ever 
regretting having confided to me the care of his happiness. It 
is with these sentiments that I am, Monsieur my brother and 
cousin, Your Royal Highness's very affectionate sister and 
cousin, 

" Maria Carolina " 

Caroline wrote from Naples, where she had arrived a week 
earlier. She had left Palermo on April 2, on board the frigate 
Sirena y escorted by thirteen other vessels of war, and had been 
greeted on her arrival by the ringing of church bells, the firing 
of the cannon of the forts, and a salute of one hundred guns 
from the British Mediterranean squadron, which was then lying 
in the bay. All Naples was en fete ; the municipal authorities 
waited on the princess and presented her, in the name of the 
city, with a magnificent diadem, which is said to have cost 
240,000 ducats ; enthusiastic acclamations greeted her as she 
passed from the harbour to the Palazzo Reale ; and the emotional 
Neapolitans, never doubting that the marriages of princesses 
are arranged in Heaven, flocked in crowds to the Cathedral 
of San Gennaro, to return thanks to that popular saint for his 
intercession. 

As the young princess had quitted Naples when she was 
barely seven years old, she had, of course, but a very vague 
recollection of it, and she was anxious to take advantage of the 
short time which remained to her ere she left her native land 
to renew her acquaintance with those marvels of art and Nature 
which have made it the admiration of the whole world. In her 
journal she tells us how she visited the garden of the Villa 
Reale, the Palace of Capodimonte, Pausilippo, Pompeii, " which 
interested me infinitely," and Pozzuoli and the Temple of 
Serapis. Everywhere she went her footsteps were dogged by 
crowds of people, and at Pompeii, whose inhabitants seem to 
have found as much to interest them in the princess as did the 
princess in the antiquities, the crowd was so dense and so 
determined to satisfy its curiosity, that it completely hemmed 
the royal party in, and it seemed that nothing short of a fresh 
irruption of the volcano would persuade it to make way. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 31 

However, they were at length permitted to proceed, and 
departed amid a tempest of " vivas ! " This must have been 
a rather trying experience, particularly for M. de Blacas, who 
had accompanied the princess, and whose fastidious nostrils 
were unaccustomed to the odours of a perspiring Neapolitan 
mob. 

On April 13, Blacas brought to the Prince-Royal the portrait 
of the Due de Berry, in order that Caroline might have an 
opportunity of seeing it before he presented it in due form. 
Two days later, the marriage-contract, which, contrary to custom, 
had presented no difficulties, was signed. The principal articles, 
those relating to the princess's dowry and the provision to be 
made for her by Louis XVIII. in the event of her widowhood, 
were thus conceived : 

"H.M. the King of the Two Sicilies gives as dowry to the 
Most Serene Princess, his grand-daughter, the sum of 120,000 
Neapolitan ducats, or 500,000 francs, payable in eighteen months, 
which sum the said Princess may use and dispose of in con- 
formity with the laws and customs of France. The said sum 
of 120,000 Neapolitan ducats, or 500,000 francs, is independent 
of that, also of 120,000 Neapolitan ducats, or 200,000 florins, 
which reverts to her from the dowry of the Princess Maria 
Clementina of Austria, her mother, of whom she is the sole 
and only heir, which sum, together with the interest due from 
H.M. the Emperor of Austria, not forming part of the dowry 
of the Most Serene spouse, she can enjoy and dispose of as her 
private property. 

" In addition to the said dowry, H.M. the King of the Two 
Sicilies will make a present to the Most Serene Princess Caroline 
Ferdinande Louise of trinkets and jewels to the value of 500,000 
Neapolitan ducats. 

" H.M. the King of France, will, in the event of widowhood, 
settle, as jointure, upon the Most Serene Princess an annual 
income of 100,000 francs, with the privilege of enjoying it in 
such place as she may please, either in France, or in the States 
of her grandfather, or in any other States or country outside 
the States of his Most Christian Majesty." 

Louis XVIII. also engaged to present the princess with 
jewels to the value of 300,000 francs. 

On the following day, before dinner, Blacas formally 



32 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

presented the portrait of the Due de Berry to his future bride, 
accompanied by an appropriate oration. " I was sensibly 
touched," writes the princess in her journal, "by the nobility 
of his discourse and the sentiments which he knew so well how 
to express. Not being able to reply to it, I intend to show him 
my gratitude and my sensibility on the first opportunity I have 
of seeing him. From this moment France becomes more dear 
to me, and I promise myself to share my affections between my 
family and that which I have the happiness to enter." 

On the 24th, the marriage by procuration was celebrated, 
with great pomp, in the chapel of the Palazzo Reale, in the 
presence of the Royal Family, the Corps Diplomatique, the 
Ministers, and all the grandees of the realm. The bride's uncle, 
Leopold, Prince of Salerno, represented the Due de Berry, and 
Cardinal Ruffo gave the nuptial blessing. Before the ceremony, 
Caroline had confessed and communicated with the Royal 
Family. In the evening, the whole city was brilliantly illumi- 
nated, and a gala performance was given at the Fondo Theatre. 
It terminated with a transparency representing Louis XVIII. 
bestowing his avuncular benediction on the bridal pair. 

Immediately after the marriage ceremony, the Duchesse de 
Berry — as we may now call the young princess — wrote to the 
husband whom she had not yet seen the following affectionate 
and touching letter, to assure him of her sincerity in the engage- 
ment into which she had just entered : 

" Naples, 24 April, 181 6. 

" I have just taken at the altar, Monseigneur, the solemn 
engagement to be your faithful and affectionate wife. This 
precious title imposes upon me duties which I most willingly 
commence to fulfil from this moment, by assuring you of the 
sentiments which my heart has already vowed to you for life ; 
its sole occupation shall be to seek means of pleasing you, 
conciliating your affection, and meriting your confidence. Yes, 
you will have all that is mine, all my affection ; you will be my 
guide, my friend ; you will teach me how to please your august 
family ; you will (I do not doubt) soothe the keen regret which 
I am about to experience in separating from my own. It is to 
you, in a word, that I entrust entirely the care of my conduct, that 
you may guide it towards all that may procure your happiness. 
I shall make it my constant study. May I succeed therein and 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 33 

prove to you how highly I value the privilege of being your 
consort. It is in these sentiments that I am, for life, 

" Your affectionate wife, 
" Caroline " 

On the same day, the duke, who had been much touched by 
Caroline's letter of the 13th, wrote to his young wife from 
Paris. 

" April 24. 

" Your amiable letter has given me a pleasure which I can- 
not express to you, Madame and dear wife, for to-day we have 
plighted our troth to one another. From this day, we are united 
by the sacred bonds of marriage — bonds which I shall ever seek 
to render easy to you. You deign to thank me for having 
chosen you as my life's companion ! What thanks do I not owe 
to your Royal Highness for having acceded so promptly to the 
wishes of your august parents ! I appreciate how much it must 
cost you to leave them, to come, almost alone, into a foreign 
country — though it is one which will soon be no longer foreign to 
you — to unite yourself to a man whom you do not know. I have 
composed your Household of ladies whose virtue and kindness 
are known to me ; and the King has approved my choice. Your 
dame d'honneur, the Duchesse de Reggio, 1 is in despair at not 
being able to go to meet you. Madame de la Ferronays, your 
dame d'atours, (mistress of the robes), sister of the Comtesse de 
Blacas, will be the first to have the honour of paying her court 
to you. She is a model of virtue and the sweetest amiability, 
and I recommend her particularly to you. She will present to 
you your ladies-in-waiting. The Due de Levis, your chevalier 
d'honneur, is a man as distinguished for his good qualities as for 
his talents. The Comte de Mesnard, your first equerry, is a 
loyal knight, who did not return to France until I did. In a 

1 Marie Charlotte Eugenie Julie de Coucy. She became in 1812, at the age of 
eighteen, the second wife of the celebrated soldier Charles Nicolas Oudinot, who 
had been created marshal of France and Due de Reggio in 1809. During the 
disastrous retreat from Moscow, Oudinot was severely wounded, on learning which 
his young wife, notwithstanding the remonstrances of her friends, persisted in 
travelling six hundred leagues, in mid-winter, in order to nurse him. The touching 
devotion to her husband which she displayed on this occasion had no doubt largely 
influenced the Due de Berry in selecting her for a post which would bring her into 
close intimacy with his young wife. 
D 



34 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

word, I hope that, when you know them, you will find them 
worthy of the honour of being attached to you. With what 
impatience do I await the news of your arrival in France ! How 
happy shall I be, my dearest wife, when I shall be able to call 
you by that sweet name ! All that I hear of your good qualities, 
your kindness, your intelligence, your graces, charms me and 
makes me burn with desire to see you and embrace you as I 
love you. 

"Charles Ferdinand" 

On the day after the wedding, the princess went to visit the 
Palace of Caserta, her birthplace, which she had not seen since 
her childhood. While sauntering in the beautiful gardens, she 
caught a chill, which developed into a rather sharp attack of 
fever. The doctors who were called in decided that their august 
patient must be blistered on the arm, but the princess, for 
obvious reasons, strongly objected to such a remedy. Finally, 
a compromise was effected, and the blister was applied to her 
Royal Highness's leg. 

The illness of the Duchesse de Berry delayed her departure 
for France for some days, and it was not until May 14 that she 
sailed from Naples, on board the Neapolitan frigate Christina. 

Her suite included the Prince of San Nicandro, son of the 
old gentleman who had so shockingly neglected Ferdinand's 
education, who was charged, in the capacity of Envoy 
Extraordinary, with the duty of finally delivering the precious 
person of the princess to Louis XVIII.'s representatives, and the 
Comte and Comtesse de la Tour, the one as gentleman-of-honour, 
the other as lady-of-honour. The Christina was escorted by two 
other Neapolitan vessels, the San Ferdinando, a ship-of-the-line 
of 80 guns, and the Fama, a corvette, and also by a French 
schooner, the Momus. x The Sirena — the vessel which had 
brought Caroline from Palermo — with the King, the Prince 
Royal, the Prince of Salerno, and the French Ambassador, the 
Comte de Narbonne-Pelet, on board, accompanied the squadron 
for some little distance, and then returned to Naples. 

The weather when the Duchesse de Berry left Naples was 
perfect, but some hours afterwards a south-westerly gale sprang 
up, and " the princess paid to the sea the inevitable tribute of a 

1 The French frigates Nereide and Flenr-de-lys met the squadron off Hyeres and 
escorted the princess to Marseilles. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 35 

passing indisposition." x However, after blowing hard for two 
days and nearly driving the Christina on to the reefs of the Isle 
of Elba, the storm abated, and at half-past nine on the morning 
of May 21, the cannon of the Fort of Notre-Dame de la Garde, 
which dominates the beautiful harbour of Marseilles, announced 
to the expectant city the arrival of the young princess upon 
whom so many hopes were centred. 

1 Monitenr> June 13, 1816. 



CHAPTER IV 

Arrival of the Duchesse de Berry at Marseilles — She is subjected to ten days' 
quarantine in the lazaretto — Madame de la Ferronays, her dame d'atottrs, joins her 
there — She is visited by her French Household, with whom she converses through a 
grating — Letters of Louis XVIII. and the Due de Berry to the princess — Her diver- 
sions in the lazaretto — She makes her official entry into Marseilles — Ceremony of her 
delivery to the representative of Louis XVIII. — Her reception at Marseilles — Her 
visit to Toulon — Correspondence between her and the Due de Berry — She leaves 
Marseilles on her journey to Fontainebleau — The Fete-Dieu at Aix — Her reception 
at Lyons — Her arrival at Nemours — Increasing ardour of the Due de Berry's letters 
— Meeting between the princess and the Royal Family at the Croix de Saint-Herem in 
the Forest of Fontainebleau — The Duchesse de Berry at Fontainebleau. 

EVER since the appalling visitation of the plague which 
had swept away nearly half the population of 
Marseilles in 1720, the quarantine regulations of that 
port had been exceedingly rigorous, and were but little 
relaxed, even for the most august personages. As the Duchesse 
de Berry came from a country in which an epidemic was then 
prevalent, the sanitary committee had decided that she and her 
suite must not be allowed to enter the town until they had 
undergone ten days' quarantine in the lazaretto, and that no 
one should be allowed to approach nearer to the Christina than 
the regulations prescribed. 

However, as soon as the frigate entered the roadstead, a 
swarm of light craft, adorned with flowers and white flags, put 
off from the shore and rowed out as far as they were permitted. 
This flotilla contained the Due d'Havre^ who had been chosen by 
Louis XVIII. to receive the precious person of his new niece from 
the Prince of San Nicandro, the Baron de Damas, commandant 
of Marseilles, the prefect, the mayor and the other municipal 
authorities, part of the Household of the princess, who had been 
sent to Marseilles to await the arrival of their future mistress, 1 

1 The members of the Duchesse de Berry's Household who had been sent to 
Marseilles were: the Duchesse de Reggio, dame cPhonneiir ; the Comtesse de la 
Ferronays, dame d'atours ; the Due de Levis, chevalier d'honneur ; the Comte de 

36 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 37 

and a great number of other persons, all eager to catch even a 
distant glimpse of the new arrival. The duke and the baron 
addressed their compliments to the princess through a speaking 
trumpet, and her Royal Highness bowed her acknowledgments of 
the acclamations which greeted her from the window of a cabin 
on the frigate's poop. 

The Duchesse de Berry and her suite then proceeded to the 
lazaretto, the spectators " following her with eyes and hearts." 
Here she found her dame d'atours, the Comtesse de la Ferronays 
who, the moment the princess's arrival had been signalled, 
instead of embarking with the rest of the Household, had set 
out for the lazaretto, with the intention of sharing her mistress's 
quarantine. The Vicomtesse (afterwards the Duchesse de 
Gontaut) attributes Madame de la Ferronays's action to "the 
intention of seeking a natural occasion to acquaint the princess 
with the noble sentiments, the good heart, and the intelligence 
of Monseigneur [the Due de Berry], and thus to teach her to 
love him in advance." * But, whatever the lady's motive may 
have been, her conduct was a grave breach of etiquette, since 
she had consulted neither the Due de Berry nor the Duchesse 
de Reggio, the head of the princess's Household. Every one, 
we are told, was inexpressibly shocked, and the Due de Reggio 
subsequently complained bitterly to the King of the affront 
which had been put upon his wife, to whom, as dame d'honneur, 
alone belonged the privilege which Madame de la Ferronays 
had so impudently usurped. 

As soon as the Duchesse de Berry reached the lazaretto, 

Mesnard, first equerry, and two of her six ladies-in-waiting, the Vicomtesse (after- 
wards the Duchesse) de Gontaut and the Vicomtesse de Bouille. The other ladies- 
in-waiting, Mesdames d'Hautefort, de Bethisy, de Lauriston, and de Gourges, were 
to join their mistress en route. Madame de Gontaut, in her Memoires, has left an 
amusing account of her journey to the South. She and Madame de Bouille, a pretty 
and vivacious Creole, travelled in the same carriage that had brought Napoleon 
from Waterloo to Paris : " I was told that, by way of distraction, I might find 
the mysterious hiding-places in which the Emperor used to carry his despatches, 
treasures, and so forth. This search served to amuse me during the monotony of 
the journey ; but, catching sight of one of the principal springs, I had the unfortunate 
notion of pressing it, and on the instant a board rose up and carried me wiih it. I 
found myself then lying on a hard, quilted, narrow mattress, and I rolled about, in 
despair, all one night on this poverty-stricken bed of the great Emperor, since for 
several hours I was unable to discover the secret spring which could deliver me from 
this perilous position, and I did not dare to call a halt to the column of travellers 
who accompanied us." 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



38 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

she sent to request her Household to come there. " We saw 
her," writes Madame de Gontaut, " through a grating, in a little 
parlour, where we presented ourselves every day. We thought 
Madame gracious, agreeable, good, kindly, and gay ; in a word, 
we were charmed with her. The remarkable gentleness of the 
Duchesse de Reggio pleased her at once. Madame had learned, 
from the Due d' Havre, the sacrifice I had made in leaving my 
children to come to her, and she was continually talking to me 
about it. Desiring to know what interested each of the persons 
who were to be in attendance on her, she encouraged them to 
talk about themselves, and, with a princely memory, forgot 
nothing. This we thought very amiable." 1 

The Duchesse de Reggio had been charged with a letter 
from the Due de Berry for his young wife. It was as follows : 

" Paris, 10 May, 1816. 

" I take advantage, Madame, of the departure of the Duchesse 
de Reggio, to tell you how deeply your second letter has touched 
me: that letter you wrote on the conclusion of the ceremony 
by which you confided your destiny into my hands. I am 
entrusted with your happiness, and it shall be the sweet and 
constant preoccupation of my life. I have seen with regret the 
delay in your departure from Naples ; the quarantine to which 
you will be obliged to submit, although curtailed as far as 
possible, compels me to conclude that I shall not have the 
happiness of seeing you until the early days of next month. 
How much do I regret the impossibility of going myself to 
Naples to meet you ! But we must submit to the wishes of our 
parents, and, as the first of subjects, we owe them an example 
of obedience. All France awaits you with the liveliest im- 
patience, and I more than any one. I recommend to you the 
Duchesse de Reggio, who, notwithstanding her delicate health, 
insisted on going [to Marseilles]. She deems herself very happy 
at being able to begin her duties with you. 

" Adieu, Madame, I am impatient to receive a letter from your 
Royal Highness dated in France. The wind, which is blowing 
violently, makes me tremble. 

" Charles Ferdinand " 

The princess also received a letter from Louis XVIII., who 

1 Memoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 39 

seems to have thought it necessary to apologize for the incon- 
venience to which she was being subjected. 

"You make your entry into France through a kind of 
prison," he writes, "but it is very necessary to pay a tribute 
to the times in which we live, and I hope that this will be the 
only one. If my impatience has been opposed by the severity 
of the officers of health, and, if my heart murmurs against it, my 
reason imposes silence upon me and tells me that those who 
are raised above others must give an example of submission to 
the regulations. Adieu, my dear niece, in ten days' time I shall 
love Fontainebleau well ; in the meanwhile, I embrace you most 
affectionately." 

Everything possible was done to relieve the tedium of the 
princess's period of isolation. Regattas were organised for her 
amusement ; she was taken out fishing, and, when night fell, 
musicians rowed out to the lazaretto to serenade her. On May 
23, she went for a sail in a magnificently-decorated yawl, which 
Admiral de Missiessy, who commanded at Toulon, had placed 
at her disposal. The yawl entered the harbour, care being taken 
not to approach any of the vessels at anchor there, and to keep 
at some distance from the shore, where a dense crowd of curious 
and enthusiastic people speedily assembled, clamouring for boats 
to enable them to obtain a nearer view of the princess. The 
young lady, the Journal administratif de Marseille informs us, 
" was dressed this day with the most elegant simplicity. She 
wore a gown of rose-coloured levantine, cut heart-shaped and 
trimmed with tulle ; a little cashmere shawl was thrown negli- 
gently about her shoulders ; and a large white straw hat trimmed 
with a wreath of lilies covered her beautiful hair, and was tied 
with a ribbon of the same colour. The princess, resting one 
hand on the gallery which separated her from the rowers, con- 
templated with emotion this people whom her charming 
appearance was transporting with joy. 'Ah!' she said to the 
members of her suite who were in the yawl, ' I am not perhaps 
very easily moved to tears, but to-day I must let them flow.' " 

The princess was so pleased with the enthusiasm which her 
appearance excited, that she asked that the excursion should 
be repeated the following day, " and the rays of the setting sun 
were just lighting the harbour when there rose and appeared 



40 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

that young star so earnestly desired, dressed in blue with a 
toque of white taffeta crowned with three white feathers, and 
an amaranth shawl." The writer adds that the " young star " 
seemed to be greatly moved by the joy which her admirers 
manifested. 1 

On the evening of the 25th, the orchestra of the Grand- 
Theatre, reinforced by several distinguished amateurs, gave a 
concert to the princess in front of the lazaretto, in a large tent 
which had been erected there. This tent was divided by a 
partition, in which a grating had been made, the artistes and 
the public occupying one portion, and the Duchesse de Berry 
and her suite the other. 

Her ten days' quarantine terminated, on May 30 the 
Duchesse de Berry made her official entry into Marseilles. At 
ten o'clock, she left the lazaretto, in a gilded boat belonging 
to the Royal Navy, rowed by four-and-twenty sailors, dressed 
in white satin with scarves of blue and gold. The princess sat 
beneath a canopy of crimson velvet surmounted by an immense 
crown, while above it the royal standard waved gently in the 
breeze. Through the midst of the vessels, gay with verdure 
and bunting, with which the port was filled, she was rowed 
to the landing-stage of the Place de 1' Hotel de Ville. The 
quays and the adjoining streets, the windows, and the flat roofs 
of the houses were thronged with spectators ; the bells rang 
out a joyful peal ; the cannon of the forts and of the warships 
in the harbour thundered forth their welcome ; the drums beat 
to quarters ; " the acclamations rose to heaven." " All eyes," 
writes an enthusiastic Legitimist historian, " were fixed on the > 
same point ; all hearts echoed the same sentiment ; all minds 
were filled with the same idea." 2 

Passing through a double line of troops, the princess reached 
the Hotel de Ville, where the ceremony of her delivery to the 
representative of Louis XVIII. was to take place. On the 
threshold, the Due de Levis, her chevalier d'honneur, began to 
compliment in her mother-tongue. " Speak in French, Monsieur 
le Due," said she, with a smile ; "I no longer know any other 
language." 3 

1 Journal admiuistratif de Ma?seille, May 27, 1816, cited in le Monitetir, 
June 13, 1816. 

2 Nettement. 

3 Nettement. Marie Antoinette had used almost identically the same words on 
her entry into Strasbourg, forty-six years before. 




LOUIS XVIII, KING OF FRANCE 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY 1». ANDOUIN, AFTER THE DRAWING BY P. BOUILLON 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 41 

In accordance with diplomatic usage, the Hotel de Ville 
had, by a special act, been declared neutral territory. The 
apartments to the right of the great hall had been prepared 
for the reception of the princess, her Neapolitan suite, and the 
Prince of San Nicandro, Ambassador of the King of the Two 
Sicilies. The apartments on the left were considered French 
ground, and in these were assembled the Due d'Havre, 
Ambassador of Louis XVIII. ; the Marquis de Rochemore, 
who was to fulfil the duties of Master of the Ceremonies ; the 
Duchesse de Reggio, the Comtesse de la Ferronays, Mesdames 
de Bouille and de Gontaut, the Due de Levis, the Comte de 
Mesnard, and the municipal authorities of Marseilles. On the 
Neapolitan side of the hall, the flag of the Two Sicilies had 
been hoisted, and a detachment of Ferdinand I.'s guards, which 
had accompanied the princess from Naples, was drawn up 
beneath it. On the French side, a similar number of the 
Gardes du corps, in their brilliant uniforms, stood at attention 
beneath the lilies of France. 

A table covered with a cloth of green velvet fringed with 
gold occupied the centre of the hall. The princess advanced 
and sat down at the middle of the table, on the Neapolitan side, 
with the Prince of San Nicandro on her right ; while the 
Comtesse de la Tour and the rest of her Neapolitan suite stood 
a little behind her on her left. At the same time, the Due 
d'Havre, the princess's French Household, and the municipal 
authorities entered from the left, and ranged themselves on the 
opposite side of the table, under the direction of the Marquis de 
Rochemore. 

The delivery of the princess then took place, in accordance 
with the protocol of royal alliances. After the official docu- 
ments had been read and signed, and complimentary speeches 
exchanged, Caroline rose and bade farewell to her Neapolitan 
entourage, "all of whom threw themselves upon their knees 
and kissed with respect and emotion the hands which she 
extended to them." * Then the Due d'Havre came forward, 
and the Prince of San Nicandro, taking the princess by the hand, 
consigned her to the care of the representative of his Most 
Christian Majesty, who informed her Royal Highness that 
France claimed her and conducted her to the other side of the 
table. In three steps Caroline had become a Frenchwoman, 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



42 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and a simultaneous discharge of the cannon of the forts, the 
ramparts, and the warships in the harbour at once proclaimed 
the joyful fact to the expectant multitude outside. 

Conducted by the Duchesse de Reggio and followed by the 
other ladies of her new Household, the Duchesse de Berry with- 
drew to the apartments which had been prepared for her, where 
Madame de la Ferronays, in her capacity as dame datours, 
presented her with the trousseau and the magnificent corbeille 
sent her by the King, which contained part of the jewels which 
his Majesty had engaged to provide in the marriage-contract. 
The princess made her selection from the gowns and trinkets 
spread out before her delighted eyes, and was then, in 
conformity with the rules of etiquette, divested of all her 
Neapolitan garments, even to her chemise and stockings, which 
were replaced by those of French manufacture. This complete 
change of attire was, of course, intended to be symbolical of her 
change of country. 

The Duchesse de Berry, a radiant vision in a sumptuous 
toilette ablaze with diamonds, descended the steps of the Hotel 
de Ville, and, having acknowledged the compliments of the 
Baron de Damas and the Prefect of the Department of the 
Bouches-du-Rhone, was escorted to the quay, where she 
embarked in a boat belonging to the merchant marine and 
commanded by the captain of the port. Gaily-attired oarsmen 
rowed her to the Quai de Monsieur, facing the Cannebiere, 
where the mayor was waiting to receive her. As she stepped 
on shore, the church-bells broke out again, and another salute 
was fired. 

The mayor, after haranguing the princess in that hyperbolical 
language in which civic dignitaries in all ages seem to have 
taken so much pleasure, conducted her to a carriage, which she 
entered with Mesdames de Reggio and de la Ferronays, and 
was driven, by way of the Cannebiere and the Cours, to 
the cathedral. Here she was received by the clergy, who 
offered her holy water, and then escorted her in procession 
into the church, where, after the celebration of Mass, a Te 
Deum was sung. At the conclusion of the service, the duchess 
re-entered her carriage and drove to the Prefecture, by a route 
which enabled her to traverse the most popular streets of the 
town. At the Prefecture, thirty young girls belonging to the 
first families of Marseilles, dressed in white, were waiting 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 43 

to present her with flowers. She dined an grand convert, and 
then held a reception ; and the eventful day concluded with the 
illumination of the whole city, a grand display of fireworks, and 
a gala performance at the theatre, where the appearance of the 
princess was hailed with rapturous applause. 

" Enjoy your triumphs, Madame ! " exclaims an historian of 
the princess. " Look well at those shores where a magnificent 
reception awaits you, where every one swears devotion and fidelity, 
where you make your appearance like a queen, and almost like a 
kind of divinity ! Look well at those flag-bedecked shores ! 
You will return to them again in less than sixteen years. You 
will return, but in a very different fashion ! . . . How the bells, 
how the trumpets, how the acclamations resound to-day ! Why 
think of the future ? Young and radiant princess, be happy 
while you may ! " * 

The princess was certainly resolved to be happy and to make 
others happy as well. Learning that Toulon had been much 
disappointed that Marseilles should have been preferred as the 
port which was to have the honour of welcoming her, she 
had gladly accepted an invitation to visit it. Accordingly, early 
on the following morning, notwithstanding the fatigue which 
the ceremonies of the previous day must have occasioned her, 
she drove thither, and was received with almost frenzied 
enthusiasm, the people insisting on taking the horses from her 
carriage and drawing it themselves. She reviewed the National 
Guard ; attended a splendid banquet given in her honour, by 
Admiral de Missiessy, on board the Royal Louis, the largest 
ship in the Mediterranean squadron ; witnessed a mimic naval 
combat, and visited the arsenals ; and in the evening of June 1 
returned to Marseilles, very much delighted with her reception. 

" I arrived yesterday evening from Toulon," she writes to the 
Due de Berry, " where every instant was employed in receiving 
homages and festivities both by land and sea. The whole 
town was decorated, adorned with emblems and allegorical 
inscriptions. It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm of 
these good inhabitants of Provence ; they spoil me ; they deeply 
move my heart by their repeated expressions of love for the 
King and all his family. At the same time, they have the tact 
to join with them applause for my Neapolitan relatives. Is not 

1 Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry el la Cour de Louis XVIII. 



44 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

that charming ? . . . I was conducted through the arsenals. 
The land arsenal, which was not in existence four months ago, is 
now in a condition to arm thirty thousand men. This is due to 
the indefatigable energy of the colonel in charge of it, whose name 
is Laferriere. In every way, this little journey has interested 
me. Nowhere, I conceive, could one obtain a juster idea of the 
resources and greatness of France than in visiting this beautiful 
port. If it produces this effect upon me, who understand 
nothing about it, what must it produce upon well-informed 
persons ? In thirteen days, Monseigneur, I shall see you and shall 
judge for myself all the good that I hear of your heart and 
mind, and shall repeat to you that I am for life your faithful 
and affectionate 

" Caroline " 

As the time for their meeting approached, the letters of the 
Due de Berry grow more frequent and more tender. 

" You have already," he writes, " gained the hearts of those 
who have only caught a glimpse of you. Your intelligence, your 
graces, your charming animation, will have a great success with us 
French, who love you already before knowing you. With what 
impatience I await you ! What pleasure I shall find in making 
you happy ! I think with sorrow that I must still wait three 
weeks. I hunt every week in the Forest of Fontainebleau, in 
the place where I shall see you for the first time, and my heart 
beats as I pass it. Caroline, my friend, amiable child, whose 
happiness must be my work, rest assured that I shall do every- 
thing which will depend upon me ! My heart is good, I am 
able to say, and I shall deserve thy confidence. Pardon, dear 
friend, if already I address thee in the second person singular. 
But the ' you ' is too cold. Adieu, my dear little wife. I have 
only time to embrace thee most affectionately. Reply to me 
in the same terms." 

And again : 

" I fear that the letter which I wrote you the day before 
yesterday, my very dear friend, has not appeared to you very 
sensible, but all that I was told has so intoxicated me that 
I only knew that I felt very deeply what I have perhaps 
expressed very badly. Your amiable letter has come to finish 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 45 

turning my head, and, if you continue like this, it will be 
necessary for me to be placed under restraint. I count the 
days, and I find them still an enormous quantity." 

And in a third letter : 

" The ' you ' always causes me pain ; with what pleasure shall 
I say : ' I love thee ! ' With what delight shall I await the 
answer ! I hope that it will be the same when you know me. 
I am always frightened by my thirty-eight years, and I know 
that at seventeen I thought those who were approaching forty 
very old. I do not flatter myself that I shall inspire thee with 
love, but with that sentiment so tender, stronger than friendship, 
that sweet confidence which I wish to see come spontaneously. 

" Adieu, very dear friend ; still fifteen long days more. I 
embrace thee ; I kiss the hands of my wife, as I love her already 
with all my heart." 

Far from being displeased by the increasing ardour of the 
duke's letters, the young princess was much moved by them, 
and hastened to assure the writer that he would find her only 
too ready to respond to the sentiments with which she appeared 
to have inspired him. 

" I have just received thy letter of the 26th, my dear friend," 
she writes in answer to the epistle in which he had begged 
permission to address her in the second person singular. " It is 
already a great rapprochement, which I much enjoy, as well as 
the expressions which it contains. I reply to it in the same 
fashion, with the most complete abandon and confidence. Yes, 
my friend, be sure that on my side there will never be any 
coldness ; my object is, and always will be, to prove my tender 
affection. I hope to receive further pledges of thine before 
I reach Fontainebleau. In the meanwhile, I embrace thee and 
am for life, 

"Thy Caroline" 

On June 2, the princess drove to the cathedral to hear Mass, 
and then proceeded to the Plain of Saint-Michel, where she 
reviewed the National Guard and the garrison of Marseilles. 
She returned to the Prefecture to dine, and, after dinner, was 



46 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

driven through the principal streets of the town. In the evening, 
she held a reception, at which all the principal citizens and their 
wives and daughters had the honour of being presented to her. 

The following day, after making a pilgrimage to the shrine 
of Notre-Dame de la Garde, the protectress of sailors, in fulfil- 
ment of a vow which she had made before leaving Naples, 1 the 
Duchesse de Berry quitted Marseilles, to begin her journey to 
Fontainebleau, where on the 15th she was to be met by Louis 
XVIII., her husband, and the Royal Family. Her entry into 
Paris was to take place on the following day, and the marriage 
ceremony at Notre-Dame on the 17th. 

Aix, the old seat of the Parlement of Provence, was the first 
stage, where she assisted at the procession of the Fete-Dieu, 
founded by King Rene in 1448, of which the Duchesse de 
Gontaut has left us an interesting account in her Mtmoires : 

"This festival was intended to represent the triumph of 
the Christian religion over idolatry, by means of allegorical 
personages representing the gods of Paganism, whom the 
presence of the Saviour compels to return to hell. At the 
head of the procession, we saw Mercury, the goddess of the 
night ; Pluto, surrounded by a multitude of demons ; Diana, 
Cupid, Venus, Mars, walking one after another ; then lepers, 
dancers, drummers. After the mythological divinities came 
biblical personages : the Queen of Sheba, on her way to visit 
the great Solomon ; Moses, bearing the tables of the Law, and 
striving to bring back to the worship of the true God the Jews, 

1 " Relative to the voyage of the princess from Naples to Marseilles, here is an 
anecdote for the authenticity of which we are able to vouch : 

" A few days before her departure, her Royal Highness received a stamped packet 
from Marseilles, in which she found a little image of Notre-Dame de la Garde. 
The letter which accompanied this singular present informed the princess that Notre- 
Dame de la Garde, object of the peculiar veneration of the Marseillaise mariners, and 
their protectress, would, owing to the intercession of the Provencaux, protect her 
Royal Highness from all harm during the voyage, provided that she carried the little 
image about her, which she did not fail to do. And it happened, owing to a very 
thick fog, in the channel between the Isle of Elba and the coast of Fiume, that the 
frigate was running under full sail upon the reefs which border that island, when, 
happily, it altered its course. Superior minds may find in this a subject for ill-timed 
pleasantry. For ourselves, we can only applaud the pious sentiments of the commander 
of the Neapolitan frigate [Captain Barone], who, penetrated by gratitude to the Holy 
Virgin, begged her Royal Highness, on their arrival, to give him the precious image . 
The princess deigned to accord the captain this signal favour, but she immediately 
procured another image, together with the little book of prayers." — Jovr?iai 
culministratif de Marseille, May 27, 1816. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 47 

who mock at him and dance round a paste-board golden calf. 
After the Jews came the Apostles, with the perfidious Judas at 
their head, holding in his hand a purse containing the thirty 
pieces of silver, the price of his treason. To punish his infamy, 
all the other Apostles were beating him over the head with 
pieces of wood. The Abbe of Youth, the King of the Basoche, 
and the Prince of Love preceded the canopy covering the Holy 
Sacrament, which was followed by an immense number of priests 
in different costumes. Death closed the cortege. All the bells 
of the city were ringing while the procession lasted." 

From Aix the Duchesse de Berry proceeded to Orange, where 
she visited the Roman Theatre and the Arch of Marius ; thence 
by MonteUimart, Vienne, and Valence, and early in the afternoon 
of June 8 arrived at Lyons. 

The famous city, which had suffered so cruelly for its loyalty 
to the Bourbons during the Revolution, had prepared for the 
young princess a magnificent reception. Under a triumphal 
arch which had been erected in the Place de la Charitd one 
hundred and thirty young girls were waiting to greet her ; the 
Chamber of Commerce presented her with a corbeille containing 
the most beautiful products of the silk manufactories ; x and the 
theatre gave a gala performance, at the conclusion of which a 
shower of lilies descended upon the spectators, and a dove came 
to place a crown on the duchess's head. 

At Lyons, where she remained for three days, the Duchesse 
de Berry was joined by the Prince of Castelcicala, the Neapoli- 
tan Ambassador at the French Court, who was the bearer of a 
very charming letter from Louis XVIII.: 

" I shall certainly not permit, my dear niece, the Prince 
Castelcicala, that good and excellent servant of all our family, 
to leave without giving him a line for you. If the happiness of 
seeing you before any of us was not so surely due to his tender 
and faithful attachment, I should be jealous of him ; but patience ! 
my turn will come. Meantime, I am not without pleasures. I 
have frequently that of hearing news of you, of learning of your 

1 " The princess in accepting this corbeille, with charming tact, removed the shawl 
which she was wearing and replaced it by one of those presented to her. She, at the 
same time, selected one of the stuffs, which she intended to have made into a gown 
for the play which she had consented to attend in the evening." — Moniteur, 
June 18, 1816. 



4 8 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

successes, and of enjoying them. There are degrees in this enjoy- 
ment. When I am told that people consider that you have an 
agreeable face, I say so much the better, without being too much 
moved ; but when I learn that those who approach near to you 
find you amiable, kind, and affable, it is then that I experience a 
real joy. Exterior charms pass away very quickly ; but those 
which belong to the soul, to the mind, to the character, are last- 
ing, and can only go on increasing. Such will be, I do more 
than hope, your portion. Adieu, my dear niece, I embrace you 
most affectionately. 

" Louis " 

Continuing her triumphal progress, through Moulins, the 
ancient capital of the Dukes of Bourbon ; through the muslin- 
draped streets of Tarare ; * through Montargis, where, one hundred 
and twenty years earlier, le Grand Monarque and his Court had 
come to welcome the little Marie Adelaide of Savoy, the most 
charming of all the princesses whom Italy has given to France, 
on Friday, the 14th, Caroline reached Nemours, the last 
stage before Fontainebleau, her carriage overflowing with 
the flowers that had been presented to her on the way. At 
Moulins, her suite had been reinforced by Mesdames d'Hautefort 
and de Bethisy, and at Nemours she found her two remaining 
ladies-in-waiting, Mesdames de Lauriston and de Gourgues, so 
that her Household was now complete. The Due de la Chatre, 
First Gentleman of the Chamber to Louis XVIII., and the Dues 
de Maille and de Damas were also awaiting her, and conducted 
her to the Hotel de Ville, where she passed the night. 

Before retiring, however, she had the satisfaction of 
receiving another and final letter from the Due de Berry, who 
had been bombarding her with billets-doux all the way from 
Marseilles, their tone growing more and more inflammatory as 
the distance between the impatient prince and his " chere petite 
femme" diminished. 

" My heart is beating," he writes, " and it will beat much 
faster to-morrow when my lips will press thy pretty cheeks. 
. . . When I think that thou art to-day within four leagues 
of me and that I cannot go to see thee, it enrages me ! 

1 The manufacture of muslin was then, as it is to-day, the principal industry of 
Tarare. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 49 

How I wish that Thursday were here and that I could be at 
last alone with thee ! . . . No ; do not delay in sending me an 
answer, I entreat thee. Till to-morrow, dear friend ; while 
awaiting the end of this long day, receive the assurance of the 
tender attachment of 

"Thy Charles" 

This ardent epistle was written from Fontainebleau, where 
the whole Royal Family were now assembled. Monsieur and the 
Due and Duchesse d'Angouleme had left Paris on the nth, the 
Due de Berry at five o'clock on the following morning, and 
Louis XVIII. early in the afternoon of the same day. 
Talleyrand, the Due de Mouchy, and the Due de la Chatre, by 
virtue of their respective offices of Grand Chamberlain, Captain 
of the Guards, and First Gentleman of the Chamber on duty 
that year, occupied seats in the King's carriage ; but, on 
arriving at Fontainebleau, the last-named nobleman had hurried 
on to Nemours to receive the Duchesse de Berry. 1 On the 
evening of the 14th, his Majesty dined an grand convert in the 
Salle des Fetes decorated by Primaticcio's matchless frescoes, 
while an endless procession of his loyal subjects defiled round 
the table, and the chapel band played Vive Henri IV. and 
Charmante Gabrielle. 

The spot selected for the meeting of the Royal Family and 
the Duchesse de Berry was the cross-roads of the Croix de Saint- 
Herem, situated in the middle of the forest, about a league from 
Fontainebleau. It was the same place at which, nearly twelve 
years before (November 25, 1804), Napoleon had received 
Pius VII., when that Pontiff had come to France to crown him 
Emperor ; and, by a really remarkable coincidence, Talleyrand, 
who had then been in attendance on the Emperor as Grand 
Chamberlain, was now present in the same capacity to 
Louis XVIII. Whether Bonaparte or Bourbon occupied the 
throne of France, the star of the ex-Bishop of Autun was proof 
against all vicissitudes ! 

On the morning of the 15th, after hearing Mass, the Duchesse 
de Berry, dressed in white and wearing a diadem of pearls and 
diamonds, surmounted by a wreath of roses, entered her carriage, 
with the Duchesse de Reggio and Madame de la Ferronays, and 
set out for the rendezvous. 

1 Journal des Debats, June 13, 1816. 
E 



50 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

At mid-day the princess perceived in the distance the two 
tents adorned with the double escutcheons of France and the 
Two Sicilies, and the Duchesse de Reggio observed : " I must 
warn your Royal Highness that we are about to arrive at the 
Croix de Saint-Herem. It is there that Madame la Duchesse 
de Berry will find the Royal Family." As the princess's carriage 
entered the glade from the South, that of Louis XVIII. 
entered it from the North, for etiquette required that both 
corteges should reach the rendezvous at precisely the same 
moment, and, to ensure this, signals had been established along 
the roads, to hasten or delay the advance of the travellers. 

The Duchesse de Berry's carriage stopped. " The King is 
advancing to meet your Royal Highness," observed the Duchesse 
de Reggio. 

The step was let down ; the Due de Levis, her chevalier 
d'konneur, came forward and offered his hand, and the princess 
alighted. 

Etiquette met her at the carriage-door. It had been decided 
that the ceremonial observed on the arrival of Marie Leczinska 
at Moret ninety years before was to be scrupulously resuscitated. 
On the grass between the two tents a carpet had been spread. 
The princess, alone, was to advance half-way along the carpet ; 
while the Royal Family, with the King at their head, crossed the 
other half, so that the meeting should take place exactly in 
the centre. But this tedious ceremonial was too much for the 
impulsive young lady, and, after inquiring in an undertone if 
the carpet were neutral ground like the Hotel de Ville at 
Marseilles, she hastened forward and, before the gouty old King 
had advanced more than a few paces along the carpet, she knelt 
at his feet, lifted his hands to her lips, " and said some words of 
which he seemed to approve." * The King, raising her up and 
pressing her to his heart, embraced her several times, and then 
presented her to the members of the Royal Family. " Nephew," 
said he, addressing the Due de Berry, "here is the princess who 
is destined for you. It is my daughter whom I give to you, for 
I love her already as a father. Endeavour to make her happy." 
And with that he joined their hands. 

"They looked at one another," writes the Duchesse de 
Gontaut. " What a moment, when each sought to divine what 
their whole life was to be ! She appeared to please him, and I 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mimoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 51 

heard him say in a low tone to Madame de la Ferronays : ' I shall 
love her.' " 

The weather had been gloomy all the morning, but at the 
moment of the interview the sun broke through the clouds, and 
the brilliant toilettes of the ladies, the splendid uniforms of the 
princes and their suites, and of the troops of the Maison du Roi, 
who lined the open space around the cross, presented a dazzling 
spectacle. 

The presentations concluded, the King offered his right hand 
to the princess, and the Due de Berry his left, to conduct 
her to the royal coach, which was capable of containing the 
whole Royal Family. " The princes," writes the enthusiastic 
correspondent of the Moniteur, " appeared intoxicated with joy, 
and never had his Majesty's countenance worn a more kind or 
benevolent expression." 

Amid shouts of " Vive le Roi ! " and " Vivent les Bourbons /" 
the royal cortege set out for Fontainebleau. It entered the 
chateau by the Cour du Cheval-Blanc, where three regiments of 
the Guard and several squadrons of lancers and hussars were 
drawn up. The perron of the Escalier du Fer-a-Cheval was 
hidden beneath a portico composed entirely of flowers, ingeni- 
ously arranged so as to form inscriptions. During the whole 
evening the courts of the chateau were filled by an immense 
crowd, eager to get a glimpse of the princess. " At six o'clock, 
the Royal Family dined in the Salle des Fetes, and every one 
who desired was admitted to the honour of being present at the 
repast. The young Duchesse de Berry, who was placed on his 
Majesty's left, by the side of her august husband, was the centre 
of observation. After dinner, his Majesty showed himself at one 
of the windows of the Salle des Gardes, overlooking the Cour 
Ovale, and, having given signs of his affection and benevolence 
to the crowd, who made the air resound with cries of ' Vive la 
Roi/' took the Duchesse de Berry by the hand, and presented 
her to the people. Her Royal Highness responded by a saluta- 
tion full of grace to the signs of joy which were manifested at 
sight of her. The Due de Berry, who was by her side, was 
received with equal enthusiasm." x 

The Royal Family retired early, for every one was very tired, 
and the morrow was to witness the Duchesse de Berry's solemn 
entry into the capital. The Due de Berry took leave of his wife 

1 Moniteur, June 18, 1816. 



52 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and left the palace, for etiquette required that he should not 
pass the night under the same roof as the princess until after 
the ceremony at Notre-Dame. But, though the inmates of the 
chateau slept, in the town dancing and merrymaking continued 
until the dawn came creeping through the trees of the forest. 



CHAPTER V 

Departure of the Duchesse de Berry and the Royal Family from Fontainebleau — 
Entry of the princess into Paris — A magnificent reception — Enthusiasm of the 
inhabitants of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine — Arrival at the Tuileries — The marriage 
ceremony at Notre-Dame — The Royal Family dine a?i grand convert at the 
Tuileries — The Due and Duchesse de Berry depart for the Elysee-Bourbon — A 
singular ceremony. 

DURING the night rain fell heavily, and, though it ceased 
before morning, the outlook was the reverse of 
promising. Every one was in despair, since immense 
preparations had been made for the reception of the princess in 
Paris, and a wet day would have been a real disaster. Happily, 
however, the weather cleared before noon, and when the Court 
left Fontainebleau, the sun was shining brilliantly once more. 

As it was the Feast of Corpus Christi, and Louis XVIII. was 
unwilling to interfere with the solemn processions which took 
place on the morning of that day, it had been arranged that the 
Royal Family should not reach Paris until four o'clock in the 
afternoon. 

More than twenty triumphal arches spanned the road between 
Fontainebleau and the capital, those at Melun being particularly 
magnificent. The one at the entrance to the town bore the 
words : "A Louis XVIII. la ville de Melun ; " that at the north 
gate was inscribed with the device : " Non major causa Icetiticz? 

The inscription on the arch erected by the inhabitants of 
Lieursaint, the village in which passes the third act of Colle's 
famous comedy, la Partie de Chasse de Henri IV., was in 
allusion to the ancedote which formed the subject of that play : 
" Les successeurs de Michati aux illustres r'ejetons de Henri IV." 1 

At four o'clock, the cannon of Vincennes announced the 
approach of the Royal Family, and the troops who were to 
precede them were marshalled at the Barriere du Tr6ne. A 
quarter of an hour later, the cortege arrived, and the King, 

1 Moniteur, June 18, 1816. 
53 



54 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

alighting from the royal coach, entered a calash which was in 
waiting. The Duchesse d'Angouleme sat on his left and the 
Due and Duchesse de Berry opposite ; while Monsieur and the 
Due d'Angouleme mounted on horseback and placed themselves 
on either side of the carriage. The procession then entered 
Paris. At its head marched the staff officers of the garrison ; 
then came successively a detachment of the National Guards of 
the adjacent departments, a regiment of dragoons, the staff 
officers of the Guard, led by the Due de Reggio, the mounted 
National Guard, the first carriages of the Court, the Gardes du 
corps, and the King's calash ; while the splendid corps 
of the Grenadiers a cheval of the Guard, a detachment of 
gendarmes, and the remaining carriages of the Court closed the 
march. 

On the Place du Trdne the procession halted, while M. de 
Chabrol, the Prefect of the Seine, on behalf of the municipal 
authorities, harangued the King and the Duchesse de Berry, 
and a deputation of young girls, chosen from the twelve 
arrondissements of Paris, presented flowers to the princess — 
who must by this time have been growing a little tired of floral 
offerings — and sang a cantata composed for the occasion by 
Cherubini. 

The procession then moved on through a double hedge of 
troops and under an arch of white flags and chains of evergreens, 
from which were suspended crowns of lilies and interlaced 
hearts of roses, along the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and the 
boulevards. 

The Faubourg Saint-Antoine had a sinister reputation 
where the Bourbons were concerned. From its crowded courts 
and fetid alleys had come the greater part of the frenzied mob 
which had demolished the Bastille, dragged the Royal Family 
from Versailles, and stormed the Tuileries. Its ragged denizens 
had been among the most assiduous of Dame Guillotine's 
courtiers ; had shouted for joy when the heads of Louis XVI. 
and Marie Antoinette rolled in the sawdust, and had acclaimed 
Robespierre and his bloodstained satellites to the skies. But 
now their devotion to the relatives of those whom they had 
hounded to the scaffold appeared to know no bounds ; eight 
thousand workmen assessed themselves at twenty sous a head 
to provide garlands and cupids, and, in the excess of its loyalty, 
the faubourg actually went so far as to demand that it should 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 55 

be rebaptized and given the name of the Faubourg-Royal. 1 
" Tout arrive en France? as La Rochefoucauld observed to 
Cardinal Mazarin on a memorable occasion. 

The cortege moved slowly westward, the crowds becoming 
denser, the enthusiasm more unbounded, and the decorations 
more sumptuous, as it approached the Tuileries. " It is 
impossible, save for those who know Paris, to form an idea of 
the effect which the decorations produced. Each house, each 
window, vied with its neighbour in embellishment. One 
expression only can be admitted here : ' Paris was garbed in 
flags.' " 2 

All kinds of ingenious and agreeable surprises had been 
contrived for the young princess. On the Boulevard du Temple, 
opposite the Cafe d'Apollon, a rope had been stretched across 
the road. On this the younger Saqui, a celebrated acrobat of 
the time, mounted and, as the royal carriage passed beneath him, 
let fall a shower of lilies and other flowers upon its occupants. 
A little further on, a dove descended and placed a crown on the 
Duchesse de Berry's head, and on the Boulevard Montmartre 
she was introduced to the physician Robertson's mechanical 
trumpet, a halt being made in order that she might listen 
to it. 

At half-past six, the cortege reached the Tuileries, which was 
entered by the Porte du Louvre, and Louis XVIII. conducted 
the princess to the Pavilion Marsan, where she was to spend the 
night. The Royal Family again dined au grand convert, and 
afterwards showed themselves at one of the windows of the 
chateau to the enthusiastic crowd who had assembled in the 
gardens. The King then again escorted the princess, dazzled 
and delighted by the magnificence of her reception, to her 
apartments, while the Due de Berry repaired to the Elysee- 
Bourbon, which on the morrow would become the home of the 
young couple. 

A sky as cloudless as that of Naples greeted Caroline when 
she rose on her wedding-morn. At eight o'clock, the troops 
detailed to keep the route of the procession assembled in the 
open space in front of the cathedral and marched off to line the 

1 " Not knowing how else to cleanse itself of its original sin," wrote the Baron de 
Fermilly to one of his friends. 

2 Journal des Debats, June 17, 1 816. 



56 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

streets from the Place Notre-Dame to the Tuileries, where dense 
crowds had already taken their stand, for all Paris had been en 
fete from early dawn. At the same hour the doors of the 
cathedral were thrown open, and a throng of ladies en grande 
tenue and of officers and public functionaries in uniform or 
court costume hastened to take the places assigned to them in 
the choir and in the vast galleries which dominate the choir and 
the nave. 

The cathedral had been decorated with as much taste as 
magnificence. Outside, a portico of sixteen columns, supporting 
a tribune in which an orchestra was installed, prepared one for 
the pomp of the interior. The nave was draped with azure velvet 
sewn with golden fleurs-de-lis, and the arms of the principal 
towns of the kingdom, arranged three by three, were suspended 
from the pillars, while above them hung baskets filled with fruit 
and flowers. Four great columns, surmounted by rich banners 
charged with devices and ornamented on their shafts with 
emblems of Justice, Commerce, Navigation, War, the Sciences 
and the Arts, rose above the four pillars of the cross-aisle. The 
luxury of the choir was still more remarkable. Around its 
circumference, fourteen escutcheons of colossal size recalled the 
most important events of Louis XVIII.'s reign. 

On the capitals of the columns supporting the galleries above 
were portraits of the patron saints of the bride and bridegroom 
and other holy personages, separated by angels in bronze on 
pedestals of white marble. The choir, like the nave, was draped 
with azure velvet sewn with golden fleurs-de-lis, and the pave- 
ment of the whole edifice was covered with rich Savonnerie 
carpets. A profusion of girandoles jand lustres in rock-crystal 
illuminated this imposing scene. 

The civil and military authorities, the members of the Corps 
Legislatif, the Ambassadors, the Diplomatic Corps, and the 
Academies arrived in succession and took their places, and by 
ten o'clock the cathedral was completely filled and presented a 
wonderful spectacle. 

At half-past ten, the Due de Berry, accompanied by the 
Comte Dambray, Chancellor of France, arrived at the Tuileries, 
and repaired to the King's cabinet, where the civil documents 
relating to the marriage were read and signed. The witnesses 
were the Due de Bellune, the Comte de Barth61emy, Francois 
de Bellart, attorney-general of the Cour Royale, and Raymond 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 57 

de Seze, president of the Cour de Cassation, who had defended 
Louis XVI. before the Convention. All the Royal Family and 
the Princesses of the Blood were present, with the exception of 
the Due and Duchesse d'Orleans and the Due de Bourbon, who 
were all three in England. 

At half-past eleven, the wedding procession left the Tuileries 
and proceeded through the Place de Carrousel and along the 
quays to Notre-Dame, which was reached a few minutes after 
noon. The cortege was composed of the same troops as on the 
previous day and of thirty-six carriages, each drawn by eight 
horses. 

In the first, which was preceded by the heralds-at-arms and 
escorted by the Hundred Swiss, sat the King with the Due and 
Duchesse de Berry and the Duchesse d'Angouleme. At the doors 
of the cathedral Louis XVIII. was received by the Chapter, who 
moved in procession from the choir to meet him. The King, 
having replied to the compliments which they addressed to him, 
the procession entered the church, headed by .the clergy. The 
Due de Berry, holding the duchess by the hand, preceded the 
King, who advanced under a canopy borne by four canons of 
the cathedral. The Due and Duchesse d'Angouleme, Monsieur, 
the aged Prince de Conde, and the Duchesse de Bourbon, the 
Dowager-Duchesse d'Orleans followed in the order mentioned. 

The costumes of the Royal Family and the Princes and 
Princesses of the Blood were magnificent. Louis XVIII. wore 
a uniform of royal blue, heavily embroidered with gold lace and 
pearls, the Regent diamond sparkled in his hat and the Sancy 
was set in the pommel of his sword. Monsieur wore the silver- 
embroidered uniform of Colonel-General of the National Guard ; 
the Due d'Angouleme that of Grand Admiral of France ; and 
the Prince de Conde the white and gold uniform of Colonel- 
General of French Infantry. The Due de Berry was resplendent 
in the sumptuous costume which had been worn on gala 
occasions at the Court of the first Bourbon King : white-plumed 
hat, lace ruff, doublet of cloth of gold, silk breeches and stockings, 
and white satin mantle embroidered with gold. 

The Duchesse d'Angouleme was dressed in white silk with 

a coiffure of diamonds and ostrich feathers ; but it was not 

upon her, but upon her sister-in-law, that every feminine eye 

in the vast assembly was immediately directed. The young 

princess advanced, a dazzling vision, in a toilette of white satin, 



58 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

embroidered with silver-foil. The most beautiful of the Crown 
jewels scintillated in her coiffure, covered her robe and her 
corsage, and bedecked her ears, her neck, and her arms. She 
seemed almost on fire. 

Through a double line of the Hundred Swiss in their 
picturesque uniforms, the procession passed up the nave, the 
congregation, undeterred by the sanctity of the place, breaking 
forth into enthusiastic acclamations. The Due and Duchesse 
de Berry stopped at the foot of the steps leading to the altar ; 
the King, Monsieur, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme went to the 
places reserved for them in the choir, and, after kneeling in 
prayer, rose and advanced to the altar steps, the King taking up 
his position between the bridal pair, Monsieur next his son, and 
the Duchesse d'Angouleme next the young princess. The Grand 
Almoner then delivered an eloquent address, in which he 
exhorted the bride "to join the amiability of Rachel to the 
prudence of Rebecca, and the sweetness of Esther to the fidelity 
of Sarah," and "to be fruitful in saints and heroes." After this 
he performed the ceremony, Mgr. de Latil, Bishop of Amydee, 
Monsieur's first almoner, and the Abbe" de Bombelles, first 
almoner to the Duchesse de Berry, supporting the canopy, which 
was of silver brocade, the former on the bridegroom's side, the 
latter on that of the bride. The Due de Berry bowed profoundly 
both to the King and to his father, to ask their consent, before 
answering, " I will," and the Duchesse de Berry did the same to 
the King. 

After the Benediction, the King, Monsieur, and the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme returned to their places in the choir, the bridal 
pair remaining alone at the foot of the altar. The Mass was 
said by the Abb6 de Villeneuve, almoner-in-ordinary to Louis 
XVIII., the musicians of the Chapel Royal accompanying him. 
The King kissed the paten, and the celebrant blessed thirteen 
gold pieces enchased in a wax candle, which had been presented 
in the name of the bridal pair, in accordance with ancient usage. 

At the conclusion of the Mass, M. Valayer, cure of Saint 
Germain l'Auxerrois, brought the register of his parish, for the 
marriage-deed to be signed. The Grand Almoner, taking the 
pen, presented it successively to the King, the Due de Berry, 
the Duchesse de Berry, Monsieur, Madame, and the Due d'Angou- 
leme ; and an almoner-in-ordinary to the Dowager-Duchesse 
d' Orleans, the Prince de Cond<§, and the Duchesse de Bourbon, 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 59 

and to the four witnesses who had signed the civil register. 
Finally, twelve orphan girls who had been dowered by the town 
of Paris and married on the previous Saturday, 1 were brought 
forward with their husbands, and presented a crown of orange- 
blossoms to the bride, who begged them " to pray for her, and 
never to forget her." 

The procession then left the cathedral in the same order as 
it had entered, save that the Due de Berry now took his 
accustomed place behind his elder brother, while his wife 
followed the Duchesse d'Angouleme. 

The palace was reached at half-past three, and the Royal 
Family showed themselves on the balcony of the Galerie Vitrei, 
below which an immense crowd had gathered to acclaim them. 
In the evening, at seven o'clock, there was a card-party in the 
Galerie de Diane, where thirty tables had been set out. The 
Duchesse d'Angouleme, the Duchesse de Berry, and several 
other ladies had the honour of being invited in turn to play with 
the King. 

At nine o'clock, the King dined au grand convert in the 
theatre of the chateau, which had been specially prepared for the 
occasion and sumptuously decorated. All the minute ceremonial 
of the ancien regime was scrupulously observed, under the 
directions of Talleyrand, the Grand Chamberlain, who discharged 
for the nonce the functions of Grand Master of the King's 
Household, the Prince de Cond6, the holder of that office, being 
excused his duties on account of his great age, while the Due de 
Bourbon, who had the reversion of his post, was in England. 

The Comte de Coss6-Brissac, first maitre d'hotel to the 
King, with his wand of office in his hand, preceded his Majesty 
and escorted him to table. The royal princes and princesses 
had the honour of dining with his Majesty, but the princes and 
princesses of the Blood were not invited. 

The first maitre d hotel served the King, and whenever his 
Majesty wished to drink, the Grand Cellarer, the Due d'Escars, 
proclaimed the fact in a loud voice, in accordance with ancient 
custom. The Grand Officers of the Crown stood behind the 
King's chair ; the Gentlemen of the Chamber, the aides-de-camp 
on duty, and the ladies in attendance on the princesses ranged 

1 The money for their dowries had been originally voted for a grand display of 
fireworks in honour of the King, but he had expressed a desire that it should be 
expended in a more useful manner, and one calculated to produce durable results. 



6o A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

themselves on either side of the table. The duchesses were 
supplied with stools, but the other ladies were compelled to 
remain standing the whole time, and, as they were all en grand 
habit and the weather was terribly hot, they were almost fainting 
with fatigue when they were at last released. Towards the end 
of the repast, during which an endless stream of spectators 
defiled behind the balustrade and the King's musicians executed 
several pieces composed for the occasion, his Majesty received 
the Ambassadors, who came to compliment him, and spoke a 
few words to each. 

The old monarch, notwithstanding the fatigue he had under- 
gone that day, was radiant with satisfaction, and people laugh- 
ingly declared that " he looked as if he had just been married 
himself." " The Due de Berry is in love with the princess," he 
observed to one of the Ambassadors ; " but he is not the only 
one, and we are all his rivals." 

The grand convert lasted an hour, and soon afterwards the 
Due and Duchesse de Berry started for the Elys£e, accompanied 
by the Duchesse d'Angouleme, the Dowager-Duchesse d'Orleans, 
and the Duchesse de Reggio. The King ordered a calash and 
went to view the illuminations of the Tuileries, which had been 
carried out with such taste and splendour that, we are told, a 
visitor must have imagined himself in fairy-land. The chief 
attraction was a long avenue formed by multicoloured columns, 
linked together by a chain of lanterns and terminating in a 
temple of Hymen. 

After admiring the illuminations, his Majesty proceeded to 
the Elysee, to assist at the last ceremony of the day : the public 
consummation of the marriage. 

The Grand Almoner, having pronounced the benediction of 
the nuptial couch, the wedded pair entered it, in the presence 
of the King, the Royal Family, and their Household, who then 
defiled past the bed in order of precedence, bade them good-night, 
and withdrew. 1 

But we must now leave the Duchesse de Berry for a while, 
in order to speak of the prince whose bride she has become and 
of other actors on that stage on which she will presently play 
so prominent a part. 

1 Moniteur, June 18, 1816 ; Journal des Debats, June 18, 18 16 ; Duchesse de 
Gontaut, Mimoires ; Alfred de Nettement, Mhuoires sur S.A.R. Madame, la duchesse 
de Berry ; Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de Louis X VII J. ; 
Vicomte de Reiset, Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Due de Berry — His boyhood — A pretty story — He emigrates with his family 
in 1 789 — The School of Artillery at Turin — The duke joins the Army of Conde — A 
manage manque — The duke takes up his residence in London — His appearance and 
character — An incorrigible gallant — Amy Brown — Parentage of Amy Brown — 
Her four elder children : John and Robert Freeman, Emma Georgiana Marshall, 
and George Brown — Baptismal certificates of her two daughters by the Due 
de Berry, Charlotte and Louise Brown — Mystery of the paternity of the 
elder children — Assertion of the Prince de Lucinge, husband of Charlotte 
Brown, that all the children of Amy Brown were the issue of a lawful 
marriage between her and the Due de Berry which Louis XVIII. had refused to 
recognize — The legend of George Brown, the " child of mystery " — Article in the 
Telegraphe of April 14, 1877 — Appearance of M. Charles Nauroy's work, les Secrets 
des Bourbons — The brochure of M. Grave — Improbability of the supposed marriage 
having taken place at the time alleged by M. Nauroy, shown by the narrative of 
Madame de Gontaut and the letters of the Due de Berry to the Comte de Clermont- 
Lodeve — The tradition of the marriage very firmly established, notwithstanding that 
the balance of authoritative contemporary opinion is against it. 

CHARLES FERDINAND, Due de Berry, was born at 
Versailles on January 24, 1778. As a boy, he does 
not appear to have been remarkable for his intelligence 
— indeed, the Imperial Ambassador, Mercy-Argenteau, was 
unkind enough to describe both him and his elder brother, the 
Due d'Angouleme, as " nullities, like their parents " — and he was 
certainly very idle. On the other hand, he was a merry, high- 
spirited lad and extremely generous and kind-hearted. Of his 
goodness of heart, Chateaubriand relates a pretty story : — 

" A Monsieur Rochon, writing-master of the young princes, 
had experienced a considerable loss, caused by a fire. The Due 
de Berry begged his gouverneur, the Due de Serent, to give him 
twenty-five louis for poor Rochon. The duke consented, but on 
condition that the prince gave satisfaction to his master for a 
fortnight, without saying anything to him about the twenty-five 
louis. And so Monseigneur set to work and traced big letters 
as little awry as he could. Rochon was astonished at this sudden 
change and did not cease to praise his pupil. The fortnight 

61 



62 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

passed ; the Due de Berry received the twenty-five louis, and 
carried them in triumph to Rochon. The latter, not knowing 
whether the gouverneur approved of this generosity, declined to 
accept the money. The child insisted ; the master objected. 
The young prince lost patience, and, throwing the twenty-five 
louis on the table, exclaimed : ' Take them ; they have cost me 
dear enough ; it is for this that I have been writing so well for 
the last fortnight ! ' " l 

When the Comte and Comtesse d'Artois emigrated in 1789, 
the two young princes followed them, in charge of their 
gouverneur, the Due de Serent, and, after remaining a few weeks 
in the Netherlands, found an asylum with their uncle, the King 
of Sardinia, at Turin. Here they became pupils at the School of 
Artillery, where the Due de Berry, who was keenly interested 
in military studies, made excellent progress. A cannon which 
the brothers had assisted in casting, and upon which their names 
had been engraved, fell into the hands of the French when they 
invaded Piedmont, and this singular monument of the freaks of 
Fortune was found in one of the artillery-depots in France at 
the Restoration. 

In 1792, the Due de Berry joined the Army of the Princes, 
and received his " baptism of fire " at the siege of Thionville, 
where, boy though he was, he showed conspicuous courage. 
At the conclusion of the campaign, he returned to Turin, but 
rejoined the army of Conde in the summer of 1794 and served 
with it until the armistice of Leoben (June, 1794), when that 
gallant little force passed into the service of Russia. After 
spending some months with his father at Holyrood and visiting 
Louis XVIII. at Mittau, the young duke again rejoined his 
comrades, who were now quartered in Poland, and took part in 
the Swiss campaign of 1799, where he commanded a cavalry 
regiment of French emigre's, which he succeeded in bringing to 
a high state of efficiency. 

Meanwhile, Louis XVIIL, having married the Due 
d'Angouleme to the " Orphan of the Temple," was endeavouring 
to find a wife for his younger nephew. His task was no easy 
one, for, in his present position, the Due de Berry could scarcely 
be considered a suitable husband for a princess of any reigning 
House, and Bourbon pride forbade his condescending to a lady 

1 Mimoires, lettres et pikes authentiques touchant la vie et la tnort de S.A.J?. 
Charles Ferdinand (TArtois, Due de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 63 

of inferior rank. However, in 1799, the King cast his eyes in the 
direction of the Royal Family of Naples, and the Comte de 
Chastellux, his envoy at Ferdinand's Court, was directed to open 
negotiations for a marriage between the Due de Berry and the 
Princess Christina, afterwards Duchesse of Genoa. His overtures 
were well received and towards the end of that year the prince 
was invited to Palermo, where he was no doubt called upon to 
admire his Majesty's year-old grand-daughter. Little did he 
imagine that the infant princess was one day to become his 
wife ! 

The Due de Berry succeeded in making a very favourable 
impression on the Neapolitan Court; his marriage with the 
Princess Christina was practically decided upon, and he was 
even accorded a pension of 25,000 ducats, though, owing to the 
unsatisfactory condition of the royal finances, it was soon 
revoked. Maria Carolina and her daughters left Sicily on a 
visit to Vienna, and the prince went to Rome and took service 
in the Neapolitan corps which was then occupying the papal 
city. Here he received a letter from his brother, informing him 
that he was with the Army of Conde, which was now in the 
pay of England, and formed part of the Austrian forces operating 
in Bavaria, and that a general engagement was confidently 
expected. The duke's warlike ardour easily triumphed over 
his sense of discipline, and, without waiting to demand Ferdi- 
nand's permission, he left Rome, hurried through Italy and 
across the Alps, joined his comrades on the Inn, and took part 
in the campaign of Hohenlinden, though he was not actually 
present at the battle. 

This escapade proved fatal to his matrimonial prospects ; 
for Acton, who regarded the proposed match with scant favour, 
being of opinion that Ferdinand might find a much more 
eligible parti for his daughter than a vagabond prince, who 
would be entirely dependent on his father-in-law's bounty and 
might involve him in serious political embarrassments, did not 
fail to represent to the King that the young man's conduct was 
not only a gross breach of military discipline, but a personal 
affront to his Majesty. Ferdinand's vanity was wounded, and, 
though the duke wrote several letters to endeavour to exonerate 
himself, they remained unanswered, and the marriage negotia- 
tions were broken off. 

The Due de Berry was in despair and wrote to Louis XVIII. 



64 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

declaring that " he was not intended for happiness." He was 
now, indeed, in a most unfortunate position, for after the Treaty 
of Luneville, which put an end to hostilities in Germany, 
Conde's army had been definitely disbanded, and he had been 
compelled to renounce the profession which had been his almost 
from boyhood, and which had afforded him an outlet for his 
superabundant energies. After wandering rather aimlessly 
about Europe for more than four years, during which several 
unsuccessful attempts were made by his royal uncle to provide 
him with a consort befitting his exalted rank, 1 towards the end 
of 1805 or the beginning of 1806, the Due de Berry arrived in 
England and took up his residence in London. 

He was now twenty-eight years of age, rather below the 
middle height and very strongly built, with a big head, a broad 
forehead, prominent eyes, a short neck, a high complexion, and 
rather a coarse mouth, and would have been accounted an ugly 
man had it not been for a singularly charming smile, which lighted 
up his plain features and made him appear almost handsome. 
He was a good musician, and familiar with a number of instru- 
ments ; sang agreeably ; was a connoisseur of pictures, and had 
some talent for drawing ; and spoke several languages fluently. 

His manners were not nearly so refined as his tastes, being, 
in fact, brusque to the point of boorishness ; while he was 

1 One of the princesses whom his Majesty endeavoured to secure for his nephew 
was Beatrice of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel I., King of Sardinia. That 
monarch was anything but flattered by the proposal and wrote to his brother, the 
Duke of Genoa, husband of that Princess Christina of Naples, to whose hand the 
Due de Berry had once aspired, to ask him how he was to get out of the difficulty , 
without wounding the susceptibilities of the exiled family. His letter, written in 
1805, which has been published by the Vicomte de Reiset, in his interesting work, 
les En/ants du due de Berry, shows with what little favour the idea of an alliance 
with the unfortunate Bourbons was regarded, even by the secondary princes of 
Europe, and how hopeless the chance of their restoration was considered to be. "I 
must take you into my confidence," he writes, " that for a long time past I have per- 
ceived from the expressions of Louis 18 (sic) in his complimentary letters and from 
those of M. d'Avarois [d'Avaray], when he passed on his way to Naples, that they 
were desirous of opening negotiations for the marriage of Beatrice and Berry. For 
my part, I have always pretended not to understand them, because it would be to 
marry hunger and thirst and make my daughter become a perpetual Bohemian. 
Yesterday's courier brought me a note given by Louis XVIII. to Maistre, in which 
he tells him to sound me. ... I confess that I do not care about it, and I shall 
defer giving any answer to Maistre. . . . Finally, I believe that Beatrice will always 
remain less poor, and less exposed to bad company, anywhere else, even with me, 
than with Berry, whose conduct must needs not be excellent. Pray give me your 
advice on the matter, for I fear that they will return to the charge." 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 65 

obstinate and headstrong, afflicted^ with a most ungovernable 
temper, and accustomed " to express himself eloquently in his 
passions." These fits of anger once passed, however, remorse 
quickly followed, and he hastened to make reparation to those 
whom he had offended, and, on more than one occasion, he even 
had the moral courage to offer a public apology. 1 

He was, moreover, as generous and warm-hearted as he had 
been as a boy, and ever ready to hold out a helping hand to a 
friend in distress ; and his last act when the Army of Conde 
was disbanded was to distribute the money he had received 
from the sale of his horses among his needy comrades. 

" A prince who no longer reigns, an exile without a country, 
a soldier who no more goes to war, is the most independent of 
men," writes Chateaubriand in his biography of the duke. " It 
often happens that he seeks in the affections of the heart the 
wherewithal to fill the void of his days. It would be useless 
to preserve silence about that which the Christian and heroic 
death of the prince has revealed. The Due de Berry was weak 
like Francois I. and Bayard ; Henri IV. and Crillon ; Louis 
XIV. and Turenne. King John came to resume in England the 
fetters which he preferred to liberty. There are two kinds of 
faults which, grave as they ought to be in the eyes of religion, 
are treated with indulgence in the country of Agnes and 
Gabrielle. 2 In condemning too severely in our kings the 
frailties of love and the desire for glory, France would fear to 
condemn herself." 

From this passage it will be gathered that the Due de Berry 

1 Madame de la Ferronays, daughter-in-law of the Due de Berry's faithful friend 
and aide-de-camp, relates, in her Me moires, the following story: "Violent scenes 
often occurred between the Due de Berry and his devoted servant [the Comte Auguste 
de la Ferronays]. While in England, they had been even out to fight a duel, and 
the King was obliged to interfere to prevent a scandal. Another day — it is due to 
the memory of the Due de Berry to relate this anecdote, which does him great 
honour — after a violent discussion, M. de la Ferronays, having been offended, left 
the house in which the prince lived. In the evening, the Due de Berry, astonished 
at not seeing him, sent to ascertain whither he had gone, and inquired the cause of 
his sudden departure. c Monseigneur, you insulted me before your servants, and I 
should not know how to endure such treatment.' ' Name those who were present.' 
They were sent for, and the prince said to them : ■ I failed yesterday in the respect 
that I owe to M. de la Ferronays ; I make him my excuses and I ask him to pardon 
me.' Then, turning towards my father-in-law : ' Are you satisfied ? ' One can 
imagine the reply." 

2 Agnes Sorel, mistress of Charles VII., and Gabrielle d'Estrees, mistress of 
Henry IV. 

F 



66 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

was very far from insensible to feminine charms. To be candid, 
he appears to have been as incorrigible a coureur de dames as 
his great ancestor the " Vert-Galant" himself. 

With most of the prince's pre-nuptial attachments we have 
no concern here ; but there is one which it is impossible for us 
to ignore, since it has been confidently asserted that it was not 
a liaison but a marriage a la Maintenori, and, to establish or 
refute this theory, several erudite monographs and review and 
newspaper-articles without number have appeared. But let us 
listen to the Duchesse de Gontaut : 

" Simple in his tastes, the Due de Berry led a quiet life in 
London, dining daily with Monsieur, and spending with him 
frequent evenings at the houses of the Duchesse de Coigny and 
other emigrant friends. He cared little for the assemblies, 
where, however, he was much sought after ; his great pleasure 
was the Opera, ' which,' said he to me one evening, ' is rather an 
expensive taste for an exiled prince.' He made this admission 
with such grace, that I repeated it, and each of my friends 
hastened to pay him the homage of complimentary tickets for 
the boxes of Society. The Due de Berry appreciated this 
attention, and often came to tell us of it ; it was so much the 
more agreeable that this year was that of the debut of 
Madame. . . . Monseigneur, sharing the general enthusiasm, 
did not miss one of her evenings. From the Duke of 
Portland's box, where I often sat with my daughters, we 
enjoyed his admiration ; but, not far from there, we had 
remarked a woman of distinguished appearance, whom every 
one looked at, but whom no one knew. She was beautiful, 
although extremely pale, and well dressed, in a simple fashion. 
The curiosity with which she inspired our compatriots amused 
us the more that she appeared to be perfectly indifferent 
to it. A young La Chastre offered her one day a pro- 
gramme, which she refused. M de Clermont-Lodeve, more 
bold, offered her a bouquet ; she cast on him a look of magni- 
ficent disdain. On this occasion, we remarked the rather cold 
gravity of the Due de Berry, who did not consider it good 
taste to endeavour to torment this young woman. M. de 
Clermont, persisting in his attentions and his curiosity, told us 
that he had succeeded in ascertaining her history. ' In the 
quarter,' he told us, ' she is called Madame Brown. She resides 
near the Park, where every ^ day she promenades her child, a 




CHARLES FERDINAND D'ARTOIS, DUC DE BERRY 

FROM A LITHOGRAPH BV DELPECH 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 67 

little boy from six to seven years old, on whom she appears 
to lavish maternal cares. She is said to be kind, charitable, 
and sweet, but always reserved.' We were unable to learn 
more of M. de Clermont, who appeared to become mysterious, 
and we forgot about it. 

" This happened about the time of the wars of Russia and 
Spain. Some years later, I learned that Madame de Montsoreau 
and the Vicomte d'Agoult had held under the baptismal font a 
little girl, to whom they gave the name of Charlotte. Two 
years later, the Duchesse de Coigny was godmother to another 
little girl, of the name of Louise. The Due de Berry appeared 
to be interested in these children. The two godmothers were 
discreet ; the curious public was unable to draw any information 
from them. Society, as well as my daughters and myself, was 
accustomed to see them at the house of the Duchesse de Coigny 
and Madame de Montsoreau. They were carefully brought up, 
had a governess who taught them French, and spoke English 
with their mother." 

The name of the lady of the Opera was Amy Brown — Mrs. 
Brown she called herself — daughter of the Rev. John Brown, 
rector of All Saints', Maidstone, in which parish she was born 
on April 8, 1784. 

Although she was only twenty-four at the time when 
Madame de Gontaut first saw her, she was already the mother 
of four children — three boys and a girl — who shared between 
them three different patronymics : 

(1) John Freeman, without doubt the little boy with whom 
she was in the habit of walking in Hyde Park, born in 1801 or 
1802. 

(2) Robert Freeman, born probably in 1803. 

(3) Emma Georgiana Marshall, born January 10, 1804. 

(4) George Thomas Granville Brown, born February 20, 
1805. 

The two daughters, Charlotte and Louise, of whom Madame 
de Gontaut speaks were born respectively on July 18, 1808, and 
December 19, 1809; and it will be seen from their baptismal 
certificates that the Due de Berry had the very best of reasons 
for taking an interest in the little girls : 

Here is Charlotte's — 



68 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Extract from the Register of Baptisms of the Chapel of 
His Catholic Majesty in London} 

"To-day, Saturday 30 November, year 1809, has been pre- 
sented a girl named Charlotte Marie Augustine, daughter of 
Charles Ferdinand and of Amy Brown, who has been christened 
the 18 July year 1808, by the Abbe Chene, at the French Chapel 
in King Street, and I have attended to the other ceremonies of 
the baptism ; the godfather, the Comte Auguste de la Ferronays, 
and the godmother, Marie Charlotte, Comtesse de Montsoreau, 
who have signed with us : — Comte Auguste de la Ferronays ; 
M. C. F. de Nantouillet, Comtesse de Montsoreau ; P. A. Massot, 
cure - of Saint-Sylvain de Mortainville, diocese of Bayeux, and 
priest sacristan of the Chapel of His Catholic Majesty. 

" Certified the present extract, taken word for word from the 
register of baptisms of the Chapel of H. C. M. in London, the 
15 January year 18 10 — P. A. Massot, priest sacristan of the 
chapel of His Catholic Majesty." 2 

And here is Louise's — 

Extract from the Register of Baptisms of the Chapel of 
His Catholic Majesty in London. 

" To-day Saturday, thirtieth December eighteen hundred and 
nine, has been baptized by me, the undersigned, a girl named 
Louise Marie Charlotte, daughter of Charles Ferdinand and of 
Amy Brown, born on the nineteenth of December eighteen 
hundred and nine. The godfather, Louis, Baron de Roll, and 
the godmother, Marie Charlotte Albertine, Comtesse de la 
Ferronays, who have signed with us. — Louis, Baron de Roll ; 
M. C. A. de Montsoreau, Comtesse de la Ferronays ; P. A. 
Massot, cure of Saint-Sylvain de Mortainville, diocese of Bayeux, 
and priest sacristan of the Chapel of His Catholic Majesty. 

" Certified the present extract taken word for word from the 
register of baptisms of the chapel of His Catholic Majesty in 
London, this 15 January year 18 10. 

" Pierre Alexis Massot, priest sacristan of the chapel of His 
Catholic Majesty." 3 

1 Now St. James's, Spanish Place. 

2 Charles Nauroy, les Secrets des Bourbons. 

3 Vicomte de Reiset, les En/ants du Due de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 69 

Charlotte and Louise were, of course, the daughters of the 
Due de Berry ; about that there has never been any question ; 
but to whom ought the paternity of the first four children to be 
ascribed ? The two elder boys, John and Robert, bore the 
patronymic of Freeman ; the register of baptisms of the parish 
of St. George's Hanover Square informs us that the parents of 
the girl Emma Georgiana were George and Amy Marshall ; l 
while the death-certificate of George Brown, who died at Mantes 
in 1882, declares him to have been the son of George and Amy 
Brown. Beyond this we are reduced to conjecture, for the early 
life of the fair Amy is wrapped in impenetrable mystery, and all 
attempts to establish the identity of these gentlemen, or to 
discover when or where either of the three marriages took place, 
have proved futile. That at the age of twenty-five a woman 
could already be the mother of children by three different 
husbands is extremely improbable, even allowing for the pos- 
sibilities of divorce, and it would therefore appear that one at 
least of these unions must have been an illegitimate one ; while 
the fact that the most diligent search of the registers of Maid- 
stone and all the London parishes has been absolutely barren of 
result permits us to doubt if there ever was a marriage at all. 

But the existence of three lovers previous to the appearance 
of the Due de Berry upon the scene is very difficult to reconcile 
with the character of a woman whom all those who knew 
her agree in representing as modest, refined, and excessively 
reserved ; and some writers actually assert that Freeman, 
Marshall, and Brown were one and the same person, and that 
that person was the Due de Berry. 

Extravagant as such an hypothesis appears, it has found 
advocates who might be supposed to speak with authority. 
John and Robert Freeman both obtained commissions in the 
British Navy. Robert died while still a midshipman, but his 
elder brother, who was sent to the West Indian station, quitted 
the Navy to engage in business, and amassed a comfortable 
fortune. Returning to Europe, after a residence of some twenty 
years in the West Indies, in 1841, John married, at Berne, a 
Mile. Juliette de Blonay, a member of a noble French family 
residing in Switzerland. The Prince de Lucinge, husband of 

1 Nothing is known of Emma Georgiana Marshall, beyond the fact that she 
married a Mr. Joseph Haigh, a gentleman residing at Peckham. She died in 1900, 
at the great age of ninety- six. 



70 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Charlotte Brown, the elder of the two acknowledged daughters 
of the Due de Berry, who after the death of the duke was created 
Comtesse d'Issoudun by Louis XVIII., had demanded the 
young lady's hand on behalf of John Freeman. 

While engaged upon his singularly interesting work, les 
Efifants du Due de Berry, the Vicomte de Reiset put himself 
into communication with the Baron William de Blonay, 
brother of Mrs. John Freeman, in the hope that he might be 
able to throw some light upon the mystery surrounding his 
brother-in-law's birth, and received from him the following re- 
markable letter : 

" In this question of the marriage of the Due de Berry with 
Amy Brown, what I can certify, is that when the Prince de 
Lucinge, an honourable and loyal man if there was one, came to 
demand of my parents, with whom he was on very intimate 
terms, my sister's hand for M. Freeman, he declared to them, on 
his honour, that the latter was the son of the lawful marriage of 
the Due de Berry and Madame Brown, and, in consequence, the 
elder brother of his wife and Madame de Charette. 1 

" He explained how, at the Restoration, the King [Louis 
XVIIL] had refused to recognise the marriage, on account of the 
boys, but that the marriage was a fact. 

" I also heard my father say : ' If he were a bastard, I should 
have thought twice about it before giving my consent ; but it is 
clear hat, however legal this marriage was, Louis XVIIL was 
unable to recognise it, which, however, does not prevent it from 
having certainly taken place.' " 2 

This letter raises two interesting questions : (i) Was the 
Due de Berry the father of John Freeman, and therefore of the 
other three elder children of Amy Brown, since it has never 
been pretended that Amy had either husband or lover after her 
connection with the prince began ? (2) If he was, were the 
children lawful issue ? 

The good faith of the Prince de Lucinge in this matter, as 
the Vicomte de Reiset admits, is above suspicion, and there can 
be no doubt that the impenetrable silence which Amy Brown 

1 Louise Brown. She was created Comtesse de Vierzon by Louis XVIIL in 
1820, and married in 1827 Charles Athanase de Charette, Baron de la Contrie. 

2 Vicomte de Reiset, les Enfants du Due de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 71 

always preserved about her past, and the mystery which 
surrounded it, had convinced him that John Freeman, like his 
wife, was the child of the Due de Berry. It is very evident, 
however, that the Prince de Lucinge cannot have compared 
dates or have consulted the memoirs of the contemporaries of 
the Due de Berry, for the most part then unpublished, or he 
would have seen that there was no evidence worthy of the name 
to justify the supposition that the duke had even so much as 
set eyes upon Amy Brown previous to 1807. Writers on both 
sides, indeed, generally reject the idea that the duke could have 
been the father of the Freemans and Emma Georgiana Marshall, 
but great efforts have been made, for reasons which will be 
sufficiently obvious, to persuade the world that George Brown 
was the elder brother of the Comte de Chambord x and the 
legitimate heir to the throne of France. 

Let us see how this legend arose : 

Little is known of the boyhood of George Brown, save that 
when, at the Restoration, his mother and his sisters Charlotte 
and Louise came to reside in Paris, he was confided to the care 
of a family named Beausejour, living at Ouchy, on Lac Leman. 
The date at which he rejoined his mother is uncertain, but it 
was probably between the death of the Due de Berry, at the 
beginning of 1820, and the autumn of 1823, when he entered as 
a pupil the military school of Saint-Cyr. At Saint-Cyr, he made 
so little progress in his studies that, at the end of a year, Amy 
Brown decided to remove him, and, as it was then the rule at 
the school that pupils who had failed to qualify for commissions, 
or gave little hope of passing their examinations, might, if their 
parents desired, enter the Army as non-commissioned officers, 
he was appointed quartermaster in the 4th Chasseurs a cheval. 
George Brown joined his regiment in August 1825, but, five 
months later, he was discharged, the reason entered in the 
regimental register being that he was not a naturalised French- 
man. This entry was made in order to spare the feelings of his 
mother, for the true reason was that the young gentleman had 
taken French leave and eloped with a damsel of eighteen 
named Julie Lebeau, the daughter of a couturier in the Rue 
des Filles de Saint-Thomas in Paris. Julie was at this time 

1 Henri Charles Ferdinand Dieudonne, Due de Bordeaux, afterwards Comte de 
Chambord, only son of the Due and Duchesse de Berry, born in Paris, September 29, 
1820 ; died at Frohsdorf, August 24, 1883. 



72 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

employed in the London branch of her father's business, 
having been sent to England to get her out of the way of her 
military admirer, who carried her off to Italy, where he took 
service in the Neapolitan army, under the name of George 
Granville. 

In Italy, the young couple remained twelve years ; during 
which period five children were born to them, two of whom, 
both daughters, lived to grow up. They were certainly married, 
for, though no marriage certificate has been discovered, the 
Vicomte de Reiset has succeeded in tracing the baptismal 
certificate of the children, in all of which Julie is described as 
the wife of George Granville. 

Early in 1838, after a severe attack of cholera, through which 
his wife nursed him with tender devotion, George Brown returned 
to France on furlough, on a visit to his mother, who had expressed 
a great desire to see him. Now, in the eyes of the French law, 
his marriage was, of course, null and void, since it had been 
contracted when both the parties were minors, and without the 
consent of their parents. Taking advantage of this circumstance, 
Amy Brown, who had never forgiven Julie for having, as she 
considered, entrapped her son into a marriage so far beneath 
that to which he might have aspired, used all her influence to 
persuade him to abandon the mother of his children, threatening, 
in the event of his refusal, to discontinue the allowance which 
she had hitherto been in the habit of making him, and upon 
which he and his family were chiefly dependent. George, 
though he appears to have been a well-meaning kind of man, 
had no strength of character, and, after some resistance, he 
meanly consented. Thereupon his mother, determined not to 
give him leisure to repent of his decision, promptly found him 
another wife, in the person of Charlotte Louise Brown, elder 
daughter of her uncle Joseph, an engineer in a very good position 
in England, the marriage taking place in London, at Marylebone 
Parish Church, on July 12, 1838. 

Shortly after the marriage, the unfortunate Julie, alarmed 
by the long absence and silence of her husband, had followed 
him to Paris. When, on her arrival, she learned what had 
occurred, she was so overcome with grief that her mind gave 
way, and for two years she had to be confined in a maison de santi- 
Eventually, she recovered her reason, accepted the situation and 
a moderate pecuniary compensation from Amy Brown, and 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 73 

went to live with her two daughters at Batignolles, where she 
kept a small pension. 1 

In the meanwhile, the faithless George Brown and his 
new consort had taken up their residence at Mantes-la- 
Jolie, in a modest house in the Rue Saint-Pierre, now the 
Avenue de la Republique. They were exceedingly reserved 
and lived in very unpretentious style, only keeping one servant ; 
and their neighbours were therefore a good deal surprised to see 
arrive from time to time two handsome young women, whose 
elegant manners and exquisite toilettes proclaimed them to be 
members of the inner circle of the fashionable world. What was 
the more singular, was that these grandes dames seemed to be 
on the most familiar and affectionate terms with their host and 
sometimes stayed at his house for several days. The local 
gossips naturally did not rest until they had established the 
identity of the aristocratic strangers and their relationship to 
their fellow-citizens, and soon discovered, to their intense 
astonishment, that they were nothing more nor less than the 
daughters of the Due de Berry — the Princesse de Lucinge and 
the Baronne de Charette — and that M. Brown was their brother ! 
From that moment, George Brown became the object of general 
curiosity, for, argued the worthy Mantais, if his sisters were the 
daughters of the Due de Berry, then he must be of royal origin 
too ; and straightway they began to perceive in him a most 
striking resemblance to the Bourbons, both physical and moral. 

It was not, however, until nearly forty years after its birth 
that this legend entered the domain of history. On April 14, 
1877, there appeared in the Tiligraphe an article entitled le Frere 
du Roi and signed " Nullus" which aroused considerable 
sensation. After informing his readers that the Due de Berry 
had had a son as well as daughters by his supposed marriage 
with Amy Brown, the writer proceeds : 

" Do you desire a final testimony ? Come with me to Mantes- 
la-Jolie, Rue Saint-Pierre, No. 7. There, ending his days in 
obscurity, is the descendant of the Kings of France, third of 
the lamentable trilogy which begins with the Iron Mask and 
continues with Louis XVII. The Comte de Chambord will 
not long survive him, and the two brothers will be reconciled by 
death. 

" In this little town there exists a very discreet house, into 

1 Les En/ants du Due de Berry. 



74 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

which the curious never penetrate ; and there, between an old 
man-servant and an old female servant, quite alone, receiving 
neither friends nor relatives, an old man passes his life in 
meditating on the history of the Restoration before a large 
ivory crucifix. 

" When he goes out, every one uncovers respectfully before 
him. He is a man still vigorous, with a haughty carriage. One 
would say that it was Louis XIV. descended from his frame. 
The old people of the country whisper when they perceive him : 
' It is the brother of the Comte de Chambord ! ' " 

In 1882, public interest in the " child of mystery," as George 
Brown had come to be called, was further stimulated by the 
publication of M. Charles Nauroy's curious work les Secrets des 
Bourbons, of which the first part is entitled la Premiere femme 
du Due de Berry. In this volume, the learned historian pro- 
ceeded to prove, to his own entire satisfaction, that George 
Brown was the son of the Due de Berry and that a marriage 
had been celebrated between the prince and Amy Brown. He 
did not, however, go so far as to assert that this marriage had 
taken place previous to George's birth (February 20, 1805), but 
affirmed that it was celebrated in 1806 at the French Catholic 
Chapel in King's Street, Portman Square, 1 Amy Brown having 
abjured the Protestant faith two years before. 

In proof of his contention that George Brown was the son 
of the Due de Berry, M. Nauroy was unable to adduce any 
evidence beyond local gossip and the " profit bourbonien " of the 
recluse of Mantes ; but that, in his opinion, was quite sufficient 
to justify his pronouncing him to be the elder brother of the 
Comte de Chambord. 

George Brown was still alive at the time when les Secrets 
des Bourbons appeared, though he died a few weeks later (July 
2, 1882). It is quite likely that the book was brought under 
his notice, but, if so, he ignored it, being very probably too ill 
at the time to care very much whose son he was, or whether he 
was legitimate or no. He died, taking his secret with him to 
the grave, for the papers which he left behind contained nothing 
which served in any way to elucidate the mystery of his birth. 

Twenty years after George Brown's death, interest in him 
was revived by the publication of a brochure entitled Georges 

1 Now the Chapel of Saint-Louis de France, Little George Street, Portman 
Square. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 75 

Brown, I'avant dernier Bourbon by M. Grave, archivist of 
Mantes, which contained some interesting details concerning 
the later years of his life. The author, as the title of his work 
indicates, was a firm believer in the Bourbon origin of his 
subject, but beyond declaring that "he bore an astonishing 
resemblance to Louis XVI.," he did not advance any reasons 
for this conviction. There is, in fact, no more reason for 
supposing George Brown to be the son of the Due de Berry 
than there is for attributing that honour to the Freemans or 
Emma Georgiana Marshall, since, as we have already said, no 
evidence exists that the prince had ever seen Amy Brown prior 
to 1807, much less that there were tender relations between 
them, and the Comte Auguste de la Ferronays, who enjoyed at 
this time his entire confidence, declares that the Due de Berry 
did not make the lady's acquaintance until two years after the 
birth of George Brown. 1 

It may, of course, be objected that La Ferronays is not an 
impartial witness, and that his devotion to the Bourbons may 
have prevailed over his regard for the truth. But let us return 
for a moment to that scene at the Opera in London described 
by the Duchesse de Gontaut : 

"A young La Chastre offered her [Amy Brown] one day 
a programme, which she refused. M. de Clermont-Lodeve, 
more bold, offered her a bouquet ; she cast on him a look of 
magnificent disdain. On this occasion, we remarked the rather 
cold gravity of the Due de Berry, who did not consider it good 
taste to endeavour to torment this young woman." 

Nothing appears to be known of this young La Chastre, 
but the Comte de Clermont-Lodeve was one of the most 
intimate friends of the Due de Berry, and it was to him that 
the prince subsequently addressed several confidential letters 
containing some very interesting references to Amy Brown and 
his little daughters, of which we shall have something to say 
presently. Such being the case, it is obvious that if at the time 
of which the Duchesse de Gontaut speaks the liaison had 
already begun, Clermont-Lodeve would have known about it, 
since the prince was never celebrated for his discretion, and his 
various gallantries seem to have been common knowledge among 
those who were far less in his confidence than the count. Can 

' Marquis de Costa de Beauregard, En Emigration ; Souvenirs tires des papiers du 
Comte Angnste de la Ferronays. 



7 6 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

we then suppose it possible that Clermont-Lodeve would have 
been so presumptuous as to endeavour to force his attentions 
upon a lady who was beloved or even admired by the Due de 
Berry, or that the latter — one of the most violent-tempered of 
men — would have contemplated his and La Chastre's unsuccess- 
ful attempts to trespass upon his property merely " with a 
rather cold gravity " ? 

Notwithstanding the rebuff which he had received, the 
Duchesse de Gontaut tells us M. de Clermont persisted in his 
attentions and his curiosity, and at length succeeded in ascertain- 
ing the history of the fair inconnue. He communicated certain 
facts concerning the lady to Madame de Gontaut and her 
daughters, but they were unable to extract any further information 
from him, and " he appeared to them to become mysterious." 

" It is evident," observes the Vicomte de Reiset, " that 
Madame de Gontaut's narrative gives us the precise moment 
of the meeting. The prince has remarked Amy ; he has been 
struck by her beauty, attracted by her charm ; and, in spite 
of himself, although he has never perhaps addressed to her 
a single word, he is jealous and annoyed at the attempts which 
he sees made. But his heart is only beginning to be captivated, 
and he has, in consequence, been unable to make Clermont the 
confidant of an inclination of which he is still in ignorance. 
The latter seeks information on his own account, ascertains 
the name and manner of life of the unknown lady, and informs 
people of his discoveries. Then, all of a sudden, he becomes 
mysterious ; he is silent. . . . The Due de Berry has confided 
to him the secret of his love, of which, perhaps, the episode 
of the bouquet has been the determinate cause." 1 

Few, we imagine, will be inclined to quarrel with the writer's 
conclusions, which seem to dispose very effectually not only 
of the fiction concerning the paternity of George Brown, but 
also of the contention of M. Nauroy and other partisans of the 
marriage that this event took place in 1806. 2 

1 Les Enfants du Due de Berry. 

2 The hypothesis that the supposed marriage took place in 1806 is the more 
improbable, since we learn from the Souvenirs of La Ferronays that at this date the 
Due de Berry was enamoured of a certain Mile. Victorine, " une Jille du plus has 
Stage" and that one day, being apparently short of ready money, he ordered his 
maitre d' hotel to pack up all his silver plate and send it to the lady. Is this, it may 
well be asked, the conduct of a man who has just married, or was about to marry, 
another woman ? 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 77 

But the futility of both these hypotheses is even more clearly 
demonstrated by the letters of the Due de Berry to the Comte 
de Clermont-Loddve, of which we have already spoken. These 
letters — or rather certain passages from them — were communi- 
cated to the Temps, in August, 1902, by the Marquis de Luppe, 
in whose possession they then were, with the object of refuting 
the pretensions advanced by M. Grave, in his Georges Brown, 
Vavant dernier Bourbo7i, on behalf of that personage. Here is 
the marquis's letter : 

" Chateau de Beaurepaire, 
" Pont-Saint-Maxence, 
" Oise, 
" August 27, 1902. 

" Monsieur, 

"From a correspondence of the Due de Berry with 
the Comte de Clermont-Lodeve, correspondence which extends 
from 1805-1813 [the italics are ours], and which is to be 
found in my archives, I extract the following passages ; the 
only ones which relate to his first marriage [the italics are our 
own]. 

"London, April 14, 1809. 

" I have just come from playing tennis, as badly as usual. 
It is my only pleasure, for I no longer have any horses ; the 
loss of the pension from Spain and a little daughter who arrived 
last summer [the italics are the Marquis de Luppe's] having 
deprived me of the means. I pass my life with my good Emma 1 
[the italics are ours] whom I love dearly, and I am very 
happy. My little daughter is very pretty, and interests me 
greatly, as you can imagine. 

"January 8, 18 10. 

" London is quite as gloomy as thou hast seen it, but, except 
when I go to Hart- Well (sic), I live in my little home. Another 
daughter was born on the igth of last month [the italics are the 
Marquis de Luppe's]. So I have two of them. 

"October 30, 181 1. 
" . . My invasion of the (sic) Staffordshire passed off very 
well. I killed enough game and won a few pounds at quinze ; 

1 Amy Brown. 



78 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

but I have not been less pleased to find myself again in my 
little home, where thou knowest how happy I am. 



"November 28, 18 12. 

"... But I have been very pleased to find myself once more 
in my dear little home and to see again my dear little daughters 
[the italics are the Marquis de Luppe's] and their good mother 
[the italics are ours]. It seems to be that I have only returned 
this morning, so quickly does the time pass. 

"January 8, 1813. 

"... They have been very unhappy, having lost one 
daughter, and having been anxious about the other for nearly 
two months, for it is only during the last three days that she is 
really better. Her father has sat up with her every night. I 
can appreciate what they have experienced through the 
sentiments which I entertain for my dear little daughters [the italics 
are the Marquis de Luppe's] as well as for their good mother 
[the italics are ours], who makes the happiness of my life. 

"June 1, 1813. 

"... I am better and the fine weather will quite re- 
establish my health. My children and their mother, are well 
[the italics are ours] and I am very happy, desiring nothing 
beyond my dear little house." 

" According to the death-certificate of M. Brown which you 
have published, he was born in 1805 ; so he was living at the 
time when the prince wrote these lines. 

" Well, the Due de Berry, who speaks with so much 
affection of his wife and his daughters, makes no allusion to the 
existence of a son. It appears to me reasonable to conclude 
that this was because he did not have one. 

" Believe me, Monsieur, etc. 

"Marquis de Luppe" 

There are two points to observe here, besides that upon 
which the marquis lays stress. The first is that, though the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 79 

Due de Berry speaks of his children as " his dear little daughters" 
he calls Amy Brown " my good Emma " or " their good mother," 
never " my wife." We (shall return to this presently. The 
second — which by the way, the Vicomte de Reiset, who has not 
published the Marquis de Luppe's letter, but merely the passages 
which he cites, has singularly enough overlooked — is that, in a 
correspondence extending from 1805-13, no reference to Amy 
Brown is to be found earlier than April 14, 1809. Is it con- 
ceivable that if the prince and Amy had been married in 
1806, as M. Nauroy asserts, that the letters of that and the 
two following years should contain no reference whatever to 
the lady ? 

The hypothesis of a marriage in 1806 is clearly as untenable 
as that of the Bourbon origin of George Brown. However, it is 
of course, quite possible that it may have been celebrated at a 
later date, and that Amy Brown did become the wife of the Due 
de Berry and that, at the Restoration, Louis XVIII. persuaded 
Pius VII. to annul the marriage, on the ground that it had been 
contracted without his Majesty's consent, is a tradition which 
thanks in a great measure to its acceptance by the compilers of 
encyclopaedias and biographical dictionaries, 1 has become so 
firmly established that it will perhaps survive even the result of 
recent investigations. 

It is worthy of remark, however, that the balance of 
authoritative contemporary opinion is against the marriage. 
Chateaubriand refers to the Due de Berry's connection with Amy 
Brown as " one of those liaisons which religion reprobates and 
which human fragility excuses." Nettement calls it " a union 
which religion had not consecrated." The Baron Thi^bault 
speaks of Amy Brown as the Due de Berry's "femme de la main 
gauche" The Due de Broglie calls the Princesse de Lucinge 
and Madame de Charette the prince's " two natural daughters." 
The Baron de Mesnard describes them as his " two natural 
children." Finally, the Comtesse de Boigne, whose long 
residence in England, where her father, the Marquis d'Osmond, 
was Ambassador, gave her exceptional facilities for learning all 
that was known there about the matter, and who was, besides 
on intimate terms with many distinguished Emigre's, including 

1 Among these works may be mentioned the Encyclopedie des gens du vionde 
(1830), the Nouvelle biographic ginerale of Didot, the Encyclopedia Eritannica, the 
Grande Encyclopedie, and the New International Encyclopedia. 



So A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

several members of the Due de Berry's entourage, declares, in a 
letter written in 1861 to Chancellor Pasquier, that she was 
" firmly convinced that the Due de Berry had never presented 
himself at the altar with any other woman than the Princess 
Caroline of Naples." 



CHAPTER VII 

Evidence upon which the partisans of marriage rely to establish their claim — The 
death-certificate of Amy Brown — The letters of the Due de Berry to the Comte de 
Clermont-Lodeve — Inability of M. Nauroy and his supporters to produce any 
documentary evidence of the smallest value — Two wills of the Due de Berry, executed 
in 1810 and 1817, held by the Vicomte de Reiset to be an unanswerable proof that 
the prince had never contracted a marriage with Amy Brown — His conclusions 
considered — Return of the Due de Berry to France at the Restoration — Amy Brown 
and his little daughter follow him to Paris — Episode at the Opera — The Due de 
Berry visits Amy incognito — The danseuse Virginie Oreille becomes the mistress of 
the prince — " The Amours of Paul and Virginie " — The violent language of the Due 
de Berry towards the officers under his command contributes to alienate the Army 
from the Bourbons — The Due de Berry and Virginie during the Hundred Days- 
Conduct of the prince after the Second Restoration. 

BUT let us see what is the evidence upon which the 
partisans of the marriage chiefly rely to establish 
their case. Well, in the first place, there is the death- 
certificate of Amy Brown, with which M. Nauroy makes great 
play. Amy Brown died on May 7, 1S76, at the Chateau of la 
Contrie, commune of CoufTe, Loire -Inferieure, at the age of 
ninety-three, and her acte de deces was as follows : — 

" Extract from the registers of the Commune of CoufTe, 
Year 1876. 

"The Year 1876, the 7th of May, at mid-day, before us, Henri 
Poupet, mayor, officer of the civil state of the commune of CoufTe, 
canton of Ligne, department of the Loire-Inferieure, have 
appeared : Mace, Pierre, aged fifty-six years, servant at the 
Chateau of la Contrie, commune of CoufTe, and Ouvrard, Louis, 
aged twenty-nine years, schoolmaster at CoufTe, both neighbours 
of the defunct, who have declared to us that this morning, at 
five o'clock, Amy Brown, aged ninety-three years,born at Maid- 
stone, county of Kent (England) life tenant of the said Chateau 
of la Contrie, daughter of the defunct Joseph Brown and Marie 
Anne Deacon, widow of Charles Ferdinand, is deceased in her 
house, as we have assured ourselves. The present certificate 



82 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

having been read over to the witnesses, we have signed with 
them, the same day, month, and year. 

Signed : P. Mace, L. Ouvrard, and Poupet." l 

This deed is regarded by M. Nauroy, who is obviously very 
proud indeed of his discovery, as an irrefutable proof of the 
marriage. 

" Widow of Charles-Ferdinand ! " he exclaims. " What 
scruple, what secret prevision, has prevented the addition of 
Berry, of Bourbon, of Artois, or of France ? What does it matter ? 
Circumstance rare with a woman, she who is called Madame 
Brown has survived her marriage three-quarters of a century, 
her husband more than half a century, and the second wife of the 
latter six years, and never a complaint, a protest, from her 
during her lifetime. Only from a dull collection of the civil 
deeds of an obscure commune a posthumous protest emerges, 
the truth, so long concealed, disengages itself at last, and it 
is we, who have never seen this unhappy woman, who have 
discovered it and brought it to light." 2 

In point of fact, it is no proof at all, for, though M. Nauroy 
evidently intends us to believe that, before her death, Amy 
Brown had given instructions that the words " widow of Charles 
Ferdinand " were to be inserted in the certificate, nothing 
authorises such a supposition. On the other hand, as the 
Vicomte de Reiset and M. La Resie, 3 both point out, Amy 
Brown died in a place where her younger daughter, Madame de 
Charette, and her children possessed great influence, and the 
mayor no doubt inscribed on the registers what was dictated to 
him, without thinking for a single moment of disputing it. If 
the Charettes preferred, very naturally, to regard themselves as 
the descendants of a marriage rather than of a liaison, the worthy 
M. Poupet, who was very possibly one of their tenants, was 
certainly not prepared to argue the matter with them and risk 
their displeasure by denying to their relative — a lady whom all 
the neighbourhood had respected — the honour which they claimed 
for her. Hence, the only value of this document to which M. 

1 M. Charles Nauroy, les Secrets des Bourbons (1882). This deed had been 
published by the author two years earlier, in a little brochure, entitled le Premier 
mariage du due de Berry prouve par document authentique. 

2 Le Premier mariage du due de Berry prouvi par document authentique (1880). 

3 M. La Resie, Demi-Bourbons, Carnct, December, 1902. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 83 

Nauroy attaches so much importance is to show that the 
Charettes, like the Lucinges, believed in the marriage. 

The letters of the Due de Berry to the Comte de Clermont- 
Lodeve, published, as we have seen, with the object of refuting 
the allegation that George Brown was the prince's son, have 
been claimed by the partisans of the marriage as fresh evidence 
of the truth of their contention. They point triumphantly to 
the tender and respectful manner in which the Due de Berry 
speaks of Amy, to the fact that they were actually living under 
the same roof, and to the happiness which the prince seemed 
to find in his " cher petit menage." They argue that the existence 
of this interesting establishment must have been well known to 
many persons besides his correspondent, and that Louis XVIII. 
and the Comte d'Artois could not have been ignorant of it, 1 and 
ask whether the prince would have ventured to live thus openly 
with a lady unless under the sanction of the Church. 

Well, a good many men, even in exalted positions, have 
" kept house " with their inamoratas without its being regarded 
as a serious presumption in favour of marriage, and the conduct 
of the Due de Berry after the Restoration, and even after his 
marriage with the Princess Caroline, when a good deal more 
discretion was expected of him than during his residence in 
England, certainly does not point to any great regard for les 
convenances, or for the susceptibilities of Louis XVIII. and his 
father, though the recollection of the latter's own " goings on " 
with Madame de Polastron 2 were still too fresh in people's 
minds to have made it very easy for him to remonstrate with 
his son. Nor, if his letters testify to a very warm attachment 

1 See a letter, la Veriti sur le mariage du due de Berry, signed XXX. in the 
Figaro, September 15, 1902. 

2 Marie Louise Fran9oise d'Esparbes de Lussan. Having had the misfortune to 
marry the Comte de Polastron, " a nonentity who played the violin," she became 
the mistress of the Comte d'Artois, and, when the Revolution broke out, followed 
the prince to Turin, and afterwards lived with him in Scotland and England. She 
died of consumption in London on March 27, 1804. On her deathbed, she made 
Monsieur, who had loved her passionately to the last, take a solemn oath, in the 
presence of his almoner, the Abbe de Latil, that "after her, he would love no one 
but God." This oath he faithfully observed. A few weeks after his mistress's 
death, the prince wrote to his friend, the Comte de Vaudreuil : " I have no longer 
anything on earth, neither object, nor desire, nor hope, nor even any feeling. She 
used to reunite everything ; she used to animate everything for me, and her death 
has broken all the links of my heart, my soul, and my mind." Unfortunately, the 
Due de Berry was incapable of anything approaching such fidelity as this. 



84 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and regard for Amy, do they contain a single word which allows 
us to suppose that their connection was anything more than an 
ordinary liaison ; indeed, the fact that he never refers to the 
lady as his wife would appear to indicate the contrary. 

There is, however, another letter of the Due de Berry to 
Clermont-Lodeve, which, since it had no bearing on the question 
of George Brown, was not among those cited in the Temps, but 
was subsequently communicated by the Marquis de Luppe to 
the Vicomte de Reiset, and published by the latter in les Enfants 
dtiduc de Berry. This letter, which is dated August 26, 18 10, is 
evidently in answer to one in which Clermont-Lodeve had 
suggested to his royal friend a marriage between him and Mile. 
d'Orleans, sister of Louis-Philippe. 1 " Thou dost send me 
word," writes the prince, " that thou wouldst wish that I was in 
love with Mademoiselle ; but, on thy conscience, dost thou 
believe that I could present as a sister to the daughter of 
Louis XVI. 2 that of his assassin ? " 3 

This seems to be a pretty conclusive argument that, at any 
rate, so late as the summer of 18 10, the connection between the 
Due de Berry and Amy Brown had not been regularized, for 
no one can suppose that Clermont-Lodeve would have suggested 
to the duke an alliance with Mile. d'Orleans, if he had been 
already married. 

The closer the so-called evidence in favour of the marriage 
is examined, the weaker does it become. It is perfectly futile 
for its partisans to cite the opinions of the Lucinges and the 
Charettes, who can hardly be supposed to view the matter from 
an impartial standpoint, or those of Ministers and officials of 
the July Monarchy, the Second Empire, and the Third Republic, 
who had the strongest possible reason for desiring to cast doubt 
upon the legitimacy of the Comte de Chambord, or to assert 
that " Madame Brown was received in the Faubourg Saint- 
Germain, not as if she had been the mistress of the prince, but as 
a legitimate spouse from whom reasons of State had obliged 
him to separate ; " i just as though the Faubourg Saint- 
Germain might have been expected to turn its aristocratic back 

1 Louise Marie Adelaide Eugenie, Mile. d'Orleans, better known under the name 
of Madame Adelaide. 

2 The Duchesse d'Angouleme. 

3 Philippe Egalite. 

4 Intcrmidiare des Cherchcurs el Curieux, December 10, 1902. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 85 

upon the mother of the Princesse de Lucinge and the Baronne 
de Charette, two of its own acknowledged leaders ! 

What is required to establish a claim such as this, are not 
opinions, but documentary evidence, and, with the exception of 
the death-certificate of Amy Brown, of which the worthlessness 
has been shown, and the letters of the Due de Berry to 
Clermont-Lodeve, which the defenders of the marriage would 
have done better to ignore, there is none forthcoming. 

Where is the certificate of the marriage which is declared to 
have taken place in the French Chapel in King Street, or, as 
some writers assert, in what is now St. James's, Spanish Place ? 
It has " disappeared." 1 

Where is the brief which, according to M. Nauroy, was 
issued by Pius VII. "annulling the marriage, but declaring the 
two daughters born from it legitimate ? " It has " disappeared." 2 

Where is the correspondence which must have taken place 
between the Courts of France and Naples, on the one side, and 
between the former and the Vatican, on the other, when " the 
Neapolitan Government, before according the hand of Marie- 
Caroline, insisted on the proof of the annulation by the Pope of 
the first marriage ? " 3 It has " disappeared." 

No effort has been spared to discover these documents, and 

1 In the celebrated action brought in 1861 by the son of Jerome Bonaparte's 
marriage with Elizabeth Patterson, of Baltimore, against his half-brother, the Prince 
Napoleon, Maitre Alloa, counsel for the petitioner, who sought to assimilate the 
Bonaparte- Patterson union to the pretended marriage of the Due de Berry with Amy 
Brown, declared that the registers of King Street had been tampered with and the 
certificate abstracted. The Abbe Tourzel, the chaplain, having been communicated 
with by the defence, denied that there was the slightest justification for such an 
assertion. His statement has, within recent years, been confirmed by his nephew, 
Monsignor Louis Tourzel, the present chaplain, who writes, under date April EI, 
1904, to the Vicomte de Reiset : "Our registers of King Street do not bear any 
trace of mutilation, and the leaves are numbered. An abstraction appears to be 
improbable." 

2 Pius VII., it may be here observed, was the same Pontiff who had had the 
courage to resist Napoleon when at the height of his power and to refuse to annul his 
childless marriage with Josephine. It is, therefore, in the highest degree improbable 
that he would have shown himself more complaisant in the case of a marriage from 
which children had been born. 

Further, the Holy See had never recognised the right claimed by the Kings of 
France over the marriages of the princes of their House, and Louis XIII. had 
solicited in vain from Urban VIII. the annulation of the marriage of his brother 
Gaston, Due d'Orleans, with Marguerite of Lorraine, which had been contracted 
without his consent. 

3 Les Secrets des Bourbons. 



86 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

every assistance has been rendered the partisans of the 
marriage by the French Government, 1 which, on at least one 
occasion, is believed to have instituted researches on its own 
account. But no trace of them is to be found, and the registers 
of the French Chapel in London, and of St. James's, Spanish 
Place, the archives of the French Foreign Office, the Vatican 
archives, and the diplomatic archives of Naples have all alike 
been drawn blank. 

If, however, M. Nauroy and his supporters have no docu- 
mentary evidence of any value to which they can point, this is 
not the case with those who deny the existence of the marriage. 
Shortly before the publication of les Enfants du due de Berry \ 
the Vicomte de Reiset received an invitation from the Duke of 
Parma to visit him at Scherzau, in Austria. This prince had, it 
appeared, been greatly annoyed by the publication of the letter 
in the Figaro of September 15, 1902, signed XXX., of which we 
have spoken elsewhere, and the appearance of a fantastic 
brochure entitled le Premier mariage du due de Berry d Londres, 
by an author who wrote under the pseudonym of the Comte de 
Rorch' Yantel, and learning that the Vicomte de Reiset was 
engaged upon a work intended to clear the memory of the Due 
de Berry from the reproach of bigamy, he had determined to 
communicate to him certain documents which, he believed, 
would destroy once and for all a legend which had been the 
cause of so much unpleasantness to the descendants of the 
Princess Caroline. 

The documents in question which have been published, 
together with facsimiles, by the Vicomte de Reiset in an 
appendix to his work, were two oleograph wills made by the 
Due de Berry, the first dated May 9, 18 10, during his residence 
in England; the second, September 5, 1817, that is to say 
about a year after his marriage with the Princess Caroline. 

The text of the first will was as follows : 



1 " At my request, supported by the Marquis de Noailles, our Ambassador 
to the King of Italy, Signor Cairoli, Minister for Foreign Affairs, has caused 
researches to be instituted in the diplomatic archives of Naples, and it results, from 
the answer which has been transmitted to me both by M. de Noailles and by the 
Italian consul, that the correspondence has disappeared. On the other hand, M. de 
Freycinet, Minister for Foreign Affairs, has caused researches to be made in the 
diplomatic archives of France, and it has been stated that the papers have disappeared. 
But the documents of which I signal the disappearance still exist, and history will 
certainly know them." — M. Charles Nauroy, les Secrets des Bourbons. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 87 

" In the event of sudden death, I declare the two daughters 
whose baptismal certificates are annexed, 1 to be my natural 
children. I nominate as their tutors the Baron de Roll and the 
Comte de la Ferronays. 

" London, May 9, 1810. 

" Charles Ferdinand 
" Due de Bern, grandson of France " 

The second was thus conceived : 

" In the event of my dying without executing another 
deed, my will is that my private property, principally my 
pictures, be sold for the benefit of my natural daughters, 
Charlotte and Louise, daughters of Mme. Brown, and a fifth of 
the sum for the benefit of Charles, my natural son by Virginie 
Oreille. 2 The 70,000 francs in my portfolio will be divided 
between the two mothers of my said children. 

" Elysee, September 5, 1817. 

" Charles Ferdinand " 

In the opinion of the Vicomte de Reiset, these two wills are 
"evident and unanswerable proof that the Due de Berry had 
never been married before espousing the princess of the Two 
Sicilies." "The daughters whom he had by Amy Brown," he 
continues, " are natural children, like the son whom he had by 
Virginie Oreille ; and, if he favours the two first from the 
pecuniary point of view, he does not the less place them on the 
same footing from the point of view of their origin, in giving 
them all three the same qualificatio7i. The advantage accorded 
to the two mothers is identical for each, and the sum which is 
bequeathed to them is equally divided. 

" If it is sought to pretend, in regard to the will of 18 17, 
that his marriage with Marie-Caroline compelled the Due de 
Berry to dissimulate, even in a deed of this nature, the legiti- 
mate situation of his daughters, this is an argument which the 
testament of 18 10, written at a time when he was not con- 
strained to any discretion, would come to destroy. Poor exile 
in 1810, or prince all-powerful in 1817, he has employed the 
same terms in speaking of his daughters." 

1 Only one certificate, that of the future Baronne de Charette, was enclosed in 
the envelope which contained the two wills. 

2 See p. 93 and note. 



88 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

There seems to us to be only one weak point in this argu- 
ment — the possibility of a marriage between the date of the 
first will and the Restoration, or rather between the Due de 
Berry's letter to Clermont-Lodeve of August 26, 18 10 and that 
event. If we exclude the time subsequent to the retreat of the 
Grand Army from Moscow, which struck a mortal blow at the 
power and prestige of Napoleon and made a Bourbon restora- 
tion a contingency which had once more to be taken into 
account — though it must be remembered that up to within a 
few weeks of the fall of the Empire the allies were still prepared 
to make peace with Napoleon on terms which would have left 
him in tranquil possession of the throne of France, and that no 
one but those most intimately acquainted with him could have 
foreseen that his insensate obstinacy would have impelled him 
to prolong the struggle to the bitter end — there still remains a 
period of two years. Well, the prospect of a restoration had 
never seemed so remote as in 181 1, when the birth of the King 
of Rome placed the coping-stone upon the mighty fabric of 
Napoleon's fortunes and promised to assure the continuance of 
his dynasty. If then the chance of the re-establishment of his 
family had hitherto deterred the Due de Berry from regularizing 
his connection with a woman to whom he was tenderly attached 
and who had borne him two children, this would have been the 
moment when he might well have decided that there was no 
longer any justification for such hopes, and have acted accord- 
ingly. However, the possibility of the marriage having taken 
place within the period mentioned is, it must be admitted, a 
very slight one, for we learn from the Souvenirs of La 
Ferronays that in April 1813 he was charged with a mission to 
Russia to negotiate an alliance between the Due de Berry and 
the Grand Duchess Anne, sister of Alexander I. Unless, 
therefore, we are prepared to assume that Louis XVIII. was 
already taking steps to get his nephew's marriage annulled — 
and, so far as we are aware, it has never been alleged that any- 
thing was done in this direction until the beginning of the 
following year — we must conclude that the prince was still 
unmarried up to within a twelvemonth of the Restoration. 

The year 18 14 opened a new career to the Due de Berry. 
In January, he sailed for France, with the intention of landing 
on the Breton coast, where he was assured that a large force of 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 89 

armed Royalists were only awaiting the arrival of one of the 
princes to march upon Paris. On reaching Jersey, however, he 
learned that the information which the credulous counsellors of 
Louis XVIII. had been so ready to accept emanated from the 
agents of the Imperial police, who had hoped by this means to 
lure one or more of the princes into their clutches. He there- 
fore prudently remained in Jersey until the abdication of 
Napoleon and the break up of the Empire permitted him to 
return in peace ; and it was not until April 16 that, accom- 
panied by the Comtes de la Ferronays, de Nantouillet, de 
Mesnard, and de Clermont-Lodeve, he disembarked at Cher- 
bourg, where he met with a very flattering reception. Journeying 
southwards by way of Caen and Rouen, he joined the Royal 
Family at Compiegne, and on May 3 made with Louis XVI II. 
his entry into Paris. 

Scarcely had the Due de Berry re-entered France, than he 
sent for Amy Brown and his daughters to follow him thither, 
which they did, under the escort of the Due de Coigny, and 
proceeded straight to Paris. If we are to believe the Duchesse 
de Gontaut, Amy had up to this time been in entire ignorance 
of her lover's exalted station, and only learned the fact on the 
evening of her arrival in the French capital. 

" Among the festivities which took place on the King's entry 
into Paris," she writes, "that of the Opera was the first, the 
most beautiful, the most brilliant, each box being illuminated 
by a lustre up to the highest tier. The King's box presented a 
dazzling appearance, as well as the three on either side of it, in 
which sat the ladies who had been invited, in full Court toilette. 
I was in one of these boxes. One box only on the second tier 
was empty, and my attention was drawn to it for this reason. I 
perceived a woman enter it, covered with a lace veil, which 
enveloped her, but permitted one to see her face — a pale, 
beautiful face, which instantly recalled that of the silent lady of 
the Opera in London. She remained standing, but, with the 
light falling upon her, she was very conspicuous. At the 
moment when the King's procession approached, every one 
rose, their eyes fixed on the royal box. A gentleman-in- 
ordinary of the King's Household advanced, and in a loud voice 
announced : • The King ! ' The Due de Berry appeared ; all the 
princes followed him ; each ranging himself so as to make way 
for the King. It was a moment of profound silence, which 



90 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

allowed us to hear the sound of a heavy fall in the box on the 
second tier : the white lady had disappeared. Then the King 
entered, all looks were directed towards him, and the cries of 
' Vive le Roi ! ' were unanimous. I endeavoured to learn what 
could have happened to the lady, whom I had seen carried out 
fainting, and who did not re-appear. I saw that Monseigneur 
[the Due de Berry] had noticed it ; he said a word to M. de 
Clermont, who disappeared. . . . During the entr'acte between 
the two pieces, M. de Clermont came to pay me a visit. 
He appeared to me to have been very much upset. He told 
me, in a very low tone, that Madame Brown had arrived 
from London an hour before the performance, and that 
Monseigneur had sent her the ticket for the box, recommend- 
ing her to come as early as possible. The Due de Berry, 
having been in Jersey, had not seen her for a long time, and 
the surprise that he wished to give her might have killed her. 
Madame Brown, having led a very retired life, was ignorant of 
the high position of Monseigneur ; and, learning it all of a 
sudden, its splendour, far from dazzling her, had only made her 
realize the immense gulf between herself and him, impossible 
for her ever to cross." 

It would appear that, in the last phrases, Madame de 
Gontaut is not reporting the words of Clermont-Lodeve, but 
merely giving us her own opinion on the matter, for we can 
scarcely suppose that the Due de Berry would have been able, 
even if he had wished, to conceal from his mistress for nearly 
seven years his real position. To assume that such was the 
case, is not only to credit the prince with powers of dissimula- 
tion which he certainly never possessed, but to argue that the 
many friends and acquaintances whom Amy Brown is known 
to have had among the Emigre's in London were all in a 
conspiracy to deceive her. 

The appearance of her lover, no doubt in a splendid 
uniform blazing with orders, amid the pomp of the royal 
procession, may well have awakened in her a sudden presenti- 
ment that, now that he had resumed his rank, he was far 
removed from her, and that the happy family life which they 
had led together in England must come to an end. This, 
combined with the heat of the crowded theatre, the excite- 
ment, and the fatigue of her journey, are surely sufficient to 
account for her swoon, without seeking any further reason ! 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 91 

The Due de Berry had purchased for Amy and his daughters 
a little hotel in the middle of an extensive garden, situated 
between the Rue de Clichy and the Rue Blanche. Here he 
visited her nearly every day, generally in the evening, and 
always in the strictest incognito. It would appear, however, 
from the reports of the police preserved in the Archives 
Nationales, that he might just as well have spared himself these 
precautions, and that his visits to " the Duke of Wellington's 
niece," as they style Amy, was no secret, at least in official 
circles. 

Notwithstanding the regularity of the visits, it must not 
be supposed that Amy still reigned supreme over the prince's 
heart, since the greater portion of that inflammatory organ had 
lately been transferred to a new charmer. 

On the evening preceding the State entry of Louis XVIII. 
into Paris, the Due de Berry, who was supposed to be watching 
over the precious person of his royal uncle at Saint-Ouen, as 
commandant of the King's Guard, had paid a surreptitious visit 
to Paris and the Opera, arriving just as the ballet was about to 
begin. For some moments the prince swept with his lorgnette 
the ranks of seductive damsels who evolved gracefully before 
his admiring gaze in a cloud of muslin and tulle, until, on a 
sudden, his attention was arrested by a ravishing creature, with 
sparkling dark eyes, an enchanting smile, and a shape which a 
nymph might have envied. Transported with admiration, his 
Royal Highness followed her every movement with his lorgnette 
until the fall of the curtain, when he hastened into the coulisses 
— it was never his habit to consider his dignity on such occasions 
as this — sought out one of the officials of the Opera, and 
demanded the name of the fair ballerina. He was told that it 
was Virginie Oreille — on the stage Virginie Letellier — and 
that she was the daughter of the coiffeur of the Opera. His 
informant may have added that the beauteous Virginie had 
not considered it incumbent upon her to live up to her name, 
having soon after her debut accepted the " protection " of no 
less a person than the Due d'Istrie, better known to fame as 
the Marechal Bessieres. A year ago, however, poor Bessieres 
had met a soldier's death on the field of Liitzen, and no one, so 
far as was known, had as yet replaced him in her affections. 
Perhaps Monseigneur would permit him to present Mile. 
Letellier. Most certainly Monseigneur would. 



92 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

The damsel came, blushing beneath her rouge, and more 
than confirmed the favourable impression which his Royal 
Highness had formed of her across the footlights. Under the 
old regime the wishes of princes had been as commands for the 
ladies of the theatre, and, though the Revolution had changed 
many things, it had not changed that. Mile. Virginie was no 
more cruel to the Due de Berry than Mile. Contat and other 
queens of the footlights had been to his father in days gone 
by. The day was already beginning to break when the prince 
left Paris on his return to Saint-Ouen. Alas ! poor Amy S 

Soon the amours of Paul and Virginie, as a lampoon which 
was published against the Due de Berry calls them, were the 
talk of Paris. Virginie rode about in an elegant calash, with 
" Paul " sitting by her side ; she appeared in the Bois de 
Boulogne, escorted by the bodyguards of Monsieur ; she 
showed herself with her father and mother in a box exactly 
opposite that of the King at a gala performance at the Theatre- 
Feydeau, and " unheard-of sums " were reported to be expended 
for her gratification. Before the end of the year, all the town 
knew that the young lady might shortly be expected to present 
her royal admirer with a pledge of her affection. One would 
have imagined oneself back in the shameless days of the " Well- 
Beloved." 

All this naturally did not tend to raise his Royal Highness 
in the public estimation, for the Bonapartists were quick to 
seize the opportunity thus afforded them of depreciating the 
only member of the Royal Family who possessed qualities in 
the least likely to appeal to the popular fancy, and represented 
the prince as a kind of satyr. 

With the Army, in which Louis XVIII. had appointed him 
Colonel-general of Chasseurs and Lancers, the Due de Berry 
succeeded no better than with the Parisians. The soldiers, it 
is true, were rather pleased with his free and easy manners, but 
his violent temper and deplorable want of dignity made him 
many enemies among the officers, particularly among the 
veterans of Napoleon's wars, who bitterly resented being 
reprimanded and abused by a prince whose military experience 
had been gained in the service of the enemies of France. 

" The Due de Berry," writes Castellane, " has been guilty 

of several ridiculous outbursts of temper, among others one at 

Metz, at the School of Engineering, another to a colonel at 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 93 

Nancy. This prince is intoxicated with his authority, and 
resembles a student who has just left college and is quite 
astonished at having his liberty." 

And again : 

" There has been a little war at Monceaux. Some soldiers 
loaded their muskets with ball-cartridge ; a man has been 
killed, several wounded. M. Gabriel Delissert, who was present 
as an amateur, had his horse killed. The victors had at their 
head the Due d'Angouleme ; the vanquished, the Due de 
Berry. The latter deranged the manoeuvres agreed upon and 
made them ridiculous. Chance decided that several balls 
should whistle past his ears. The Due de Berry is said to 
have given Meyronnet, of the 1st Chasseurs, several blows 
with the flat of his sword. The major asserts that his horse 
received them, and that the prince placed the point of his sword 
against his breast. He called Colonel Robert and Major 
Villate . . . scoundrels, whom he would cause to die in prison, 
because he found them in a wrong position, and General 
Mensiau, a fat pig. Captain Morel, of the 1st Hussars, having 
wished to bring away some pieces of cannon which the Due de 
Berry had caused to advance right up to the skirmishers, that 
prince said to him : ' I will have you placed in irons and shot ! ' " 1 

An accident such as Castellane describes might well have 
disturbed the equanimity of even the most patient of men ; but, 
at the same time, nothing can excuse the employment of oppro- 
brious language to veteran officers who were apparently in no 
way responsible for the mishap ; and there can be no doubt that 
the prince's unfortunate explosions of temper, of which the above 
was by no means an isolated example, were not the least among 
the causes which contributed to disgust the Army with the:Bour- 
bons and to dispose it to welcome the returning Emperor with 
open arms. 

When the news of Napoleon's landing reached Paris, the Due 
de Berry was appointed to the command of the forces which 
were intended for the defence of the capital. His army, how- 
ever, rapidly melted away, and at one o'clock in the morning of 
March 20, after bidding a tender farewell to Virginie, who had 
presented him with a son a fortnight before, 2 he began his 

1 Journal du Mdrichal de Castellane, September 23 and October 20, 18 14. 

2 Charles Louis Auguste Oreille de Carriere, called the Chevalier de Carriere. 
After the assassination of the Due de Berry in February 1820, the Due and Duchesse 



94 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

retreat towards the Belgian frontier, at the head of the few troops 
who had remained faithful. At half-past eight on the evening 
of the same day, Napoleon entered Paris. 

During the Hundred Days, the Due de Berry was stationed 
with his little force at Alost. He was not without consolation 
in his exile, for Virginie had remained faithful to her prince ; 
and, so soon as her health permitted, had followed him to 
Belgium 1 and established herself at Ghent, where, under the 
convenient pretext of paying his court to the King, her lover 
visited her daily. 

When Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo had once more opened 
the gates of France to the Bourbons, the Due de Berry returned 
to Paris. Having been sent by Louis XVIII. to Lille to preside 
over the Electoral College of the Nord, he contributed with all 
his power in this department to form that " Chambre introuvable " 
which was to prove more royalist than the King, and which the 
King was eventually obliged to dissolve. On his return to the 
capital, he showed himself one of the most violent partisans of 
the reaction, and the extravagance of his language was such 
that, if we are to believe Castellane, Louis XVIII. felt obliged 
to administer a severe reprimand, and even to threaten to exile 
him if he did not moderate it. 2 

d'Angouleme took charge of the boy and sent him to the college of the Lazarists at 
Montdidier, where the latter frequently came to visit him. From there he passed to 
the Lycee-Bourbon, and subsequently obtained a commission in the Austrian army. 
He married in 1842 an Austrian lady, Fraulein Jugan, and, a few years later, resigned 
his commission, returned to France, and took up his residence at Passy. He died 
there in August 1858, at the age of forty-four. By his marriage with Fraulein 
Jugan, Charles de Carriere had a son, Casimir Charles Oreille de Carriere, who was 
at one time on the French stage. 

1 Poor Virginie had been having a very bad time in Paris, for pire Oreille, who 
appears to have been a gentleman of a somewhat mercenary disposition, was furious 
at the turn which events had taken, and overwhelmed his daughter with reproaches. 
" When the father of the belle," writes General Thiebault, " saw that the only result 
of the Restoration, so far as he was concerned, was the interesting condition of his 
daughter, he pretended to be afflicted with a veritable despair, and, in relating to all 
comers what he called, at the time, his misfortune, he never failed to conclude his 
jeremiad with these words : ' Finally, what crowns my dishonour, is that I am going 
to have a little Bourbon in my family.' Well, eighteen months after the second 
Restoration, he was gratified by another little Bourbon ; but circumstances had 
modified his sentiments, and he no longer spoke of it except with pride." — Memoir es 
du general baron Thiebault. 

- " The Due de Berry distinguishes himself by the absurdity of his talk. ■ The 
marshals are going to be hunted ; we must kill at least eight of them,' said he to the 
Marechal Marmont. The Due de Raguse [Marmont], scandalised, went to find the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 95 

After a time, however, he ceased to take any active part 
in politics and confined himself to his military duties. Aware 
that his conduct after the first Restoration had been among 
the causes of the defection of the Army, he now treated 
his officers with much greater consideration ; while the short 
addresses which he was accustomed to deliver at reviews and 
inspections were much appreciated by the troops, for he was 
an excellent speaker and knew how to reach the hearts of the 
soldiers. Nor was it forgotten that after Waterloo the Due de 
Berry had shown great solicitude for the French prisoners at 
Ghent and other Belgian towns, and that a certain grenadier 
of the Imperial Guard treasured a handkerchief embroidered 
with his Royal Highness's monogram, which the prince had 
given him to bind up a wounded arm. Paris, too, began to 
alter its opinion of the prince, for, if his morals left a good deal to 
be desired, and if his manners were brusque and sadly lacking 
in that dignity which one is accustomed to associate with 
royalty, his generosity and kindliness were undeniable. Thus, 
at the time of his marriage with the Princess Caroline, the 
Due de Berry had become quite a popular personage. 

Due de Richelieu [President of the Council and Minister for Foreign Affairs]. The 
Minister, indignant, asked him if he would sustain these words before the King, and 
put the same question to Lieutenant-General Maison, to whom the Due de Berry had 
also repeated them. The marshal replied ' Yes.' They related to Louis XVIII. his 
nephew's pretty speech. The King fell into a great rage, and sent for the Due de 
Berry. ' You will cause my dynasty to be driven from the throne,' said he to him. 
'If you continue, I shall banish you from Paris.'" — Journal du Marichal de 
Castellant) December 1 8 15. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Due and Duchesse de Berry at the Elysee-Bourbon — History of the palace — 
The duchess's apartments — A happy marriage— Simple habits of the young couple — 
Anecdotes of the ticket-collector of the Champs-Elyse'es and of the young man with 
the umbrella — Their love of the arts — Their musical tastes — Household of the Duchesse 
de Berry — The Duchesse de Reggio, dame d'honneur — The Comtesse de la Ferronays, 
dame cPatours — Madame de Gontaut — Mesdames de Lauriston, de Hautefort, de 
Bouille, and de Gourgues — Monseigneur de Bombelles, first almoner — The Due de 
Levis, first equerry — The Comte de Mesnard, chevalier d'honneur — The Elysee and 
the Tuileries — Attachment of Louis XVIII. to the Duchesse de Berry — Affectionate 
relations between the young princess and Madame, the Due d'Angouleme, and 
Monsieur — Visit of the Duchesse de Berry to the old Prince de Conde at Chantilly — 
The Elysee and the Palais- Royal — Louis XVIII.'s distrust of the Due d'Orleans — 
The Duchesse de Berry endeavours to persuade the King to confer the title of " Royal 
Highness " upon Louis-Philippe, but without success. 

IT will be remembered that, on the evening of her wedding- 
day, the Duchesse de Berry had been conducted by her 
husband to the Elysee — or the Elysee-Bourbon, as it 
was then called — which was to be their future home. Although 
of comparatively modern date, this beautiful palace, now the 
official residence of the President of the Third Republic, had 
already passed through many hands and sheltered beneath 
its roof a number of royal and other distinguished personages. 
Constructed in 171 8, by the architect Molet for Henri de la 
Tour d'Auvergne, Comte d'Evreux, third son of the Due 
de Bouillon, who had married the daughter of the wealthy 
banker Crozat, it bore until the death of it first owner the 
name of the Hotel d'Evreux. It was then purchased by 
Madame de Pompadour, who partially rebuilt it and furnished 
it in the most extravagant fashion, the curtains in the grand 
salon costing, it is said, between five and six thousand 
livres a-piece. Finding that the trees in the Champs-Elysees 
obstructed her view from the windows, she had a number of 
them cut down, after which she actually proposed to annex 
part of the promenade itself, in order to turn it into a kitchen- 
garden ; but, though she had no difficulty in obtaining Louis 

96 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 97 

XV.'s permission to do so, the indignation which such a pro- 
ceeding aroused among the Parisians, decided her to abandon 
the idea. 1 

In her will the favourite left the " Hotel de Pompadour " to 
the King, at the same time expressing a desire that it should be 
converted into a palace for the Comte de Provence (afterwards 
Louis XVIII.). The monarch, however, so far from respecting 
her last wishes, sold it, in 1773, to the financier Beaujon, whose 
residence there was signalised by fetes which have remained 
famous. After Beaujon's death, it was purchased by the 
Duchesse de Bourbon, who baptized it the '* Elysee-Bourbon ; " 
but when the Revolution came, and the duchess left the country, 
it was confiscated with the rest of the property of the emigre's 
and leased to an entrepreneur, who transformed it into a 
restaurant and place of public amusement. It remained 
national property until the beginning of 1804, when Napoleon 
purchased it and presented it to his youngest sister, Caroline 
Murat, who resided there with her husband from 1805 to 1808, 
and, according to M. Frederic Masson, expended no less than 
four million francs on its embellishment. 2 On Joachim Murat 
being created King of Naples, he and his wife relinquished the 
Elysee and the rest of their property in France to the Emperor, 
who conceived a great liking for the palace and frequently 
resided there. Josephine lived there after her divorce, until the 
jealousy of the new Empress compelled her to vacate it. It 
was at the Elysee that Napoleon spent part of the Hundred 
Days, and it was from there that he started, at first for Waterloo, 
afterwards for St. Helena. In 18 14, and again after Waterloo, 
it served as the residence of the Emperor Alexander I. of 
Russia. That singular illuminee, Madame de Kriidener, then 
the keeper of his Imperial Majesty's conscience, had accom- 
panied him to Paris on his second visit and established herself 
at the Hotel de Montchenu, in the Faubourg Saint-Honore ; and 
every alternate evening the Czar, accompanied only by a single 
attendant, used to walk across to the lady's house and remain 
there until a very late hour, the time being spent in prayer and 
the study of the Bible. On Sundays, Madame de Kriidener 

1 One fine morning, the marchioness discovered that during the night the 
inscription "Hotel de Pompadour" had been removed from the portal of her door, 
and the words " Regies meretricis AZdis" substituted. 

2 Napoleon et safamille. 

H 



98 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

had a place reserved for her in a room overlooking Alexander's 
private chapel in the Elysee, where, with her features concealed 
by a white veil, she remained throughout the service, in order 
that her soul might be united in prayer with that of her royal 
disciple. 1 

At the Restoration, the Duchesse de Bourbon had success- 
fully asserted her claim to the Elysee, but she was persuaded 
to accept in exchange the Hotel de Monaco, in the Rue de 
Varennes, and Louis XVIII. decided that it should form part 
of the appanage of the Due de Berry. 

The Elysee was certainly suggestive of many reflections 
upon the vicissitudes of human affairs, but no foreboding of 
what the future might have in store for her was allowed to 
trouble the happiness of the young bride who entered it for 
the first time that beautiful June evening ; and we may imagine 
the naive delight with which she must have beheld the elegance 
and luxury of her future home and inspected the preparations 
which had been made for her reception. 

The apartment selected for the princess overlooked the 
gardens, which in 1816 were much more extensive than they 
are to-day ; indeed, their low walls, completely hidden by ivy, 
gave them the appearance of a spacious park. Her boudoir 
was the charming salon with the silver wainscoting which had 
been Marie-Louise's favourite room, and in which, twelve 
months before, Napoleon had signed his second abdication. 
Few changes appear to have been made in the decoration of 
this apartment since the ex-Empress had left it ; but the 
furniture of violet taffeta embroidered with silver which Marie- 
Louise had chosen had been removed and the room upholstered 
in blue silk spangled with silver fieurs de lis. 

The days which followed her marriage were busy ones for 
the Duchesse de Berry. On June 18, after hearing Mass at 
the Tuileries, she received the Foreign Ambassadors and 
Ministers and their wives. She then drove with her husband 
to Bagatelle, which had been given him as a country-residence, 
and in the evening dined with the King en famille at the 
Tuileries. On the 19th, she accompanied Louis XVIII. and 
the Royal Family to Saint Cloud, 2 where his Majesty gave an 

1 For a full account of the singular relations between Alexander I. and Madame 
de Krudener, see the author's " Madame Recamier and her Friends " (Harpers), 190 1 . 

2 What might have been a serious accident occurred as the Duchesse de Berry 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 99 

informal dinner-party, to which several of the Ambassadors and 
a number of distinguished persons of the Court had the honour 
of being invited. After a walk in the park, then in all the 
beauty of early summer, the royal party returned to the 
Tuileries in time for the State ball, which was to be one of 
the chief events of the marriage festivities. This was held in 
the theatre of the chateau, which had been magnificently 
decorated for the occasion, all the pillars being ornamented 
with garlands of choice flowers. The Duchesse de Berry, who 
had taken her first dancing-lesson on the preceding day, opened 
the ball with the Due d'Angouleme. 

On the 20th, the municipal authorities presented themselves 
at the Elysee to compliment the newly-married pair, and to 
offer the duchess the presents which from time immemorial 
the town of Paris had been in the habit of making to the 
brides of princes of the Royal House : perfumed tapers of 
white wax and boxes of dried fruits. The boxes — twelve in 
number — were of cardboard, decorated with silver paper, on 
which was inscribed the Arms of Paris, and covered with blue 
taffeta. " Monseigneur, Madame," said the Prefect of the 
Seine, who headed the deputation, " the municipality of Paris, 
in presenting its humble felicitations to your Royal Highnesses, 
offers you the same presents which our fathers offered to your 
ancestors. This modest homage, consecrated by the ancient 
usage of the Monarchy, attests the moderation and simplicity 
of our august masters. We have preserved its character with 
religious respect, assured that the offering which comes from 
the heart is the only one that would be worthy of you and that 
could be accepted." 

In the afternoon of the same day, the Due and Duchesse de 
Berry attended the ceremony of the benediction and distribution 
of colours to the Royal Guard in the Champ de Mars, the 
duchesse and Madame driving thither in the King's carriage, 
while Monsieur and his sons accompanied them on horseback. 
The troops, who were under the command of the Due de 
Tarente, better known to history as Marshal Macdonald, 
defiled past the King, who was seated upon a kind of throne, 

was leaving the Tuileries. The horses attached to the calash in which she and the 
Duchesse d'Angouleme were riding took fright, and the carriage came into such 
violent collision with a post that it was all but overturned, and the pole was broken 
ofl short. As it was, the princesses escaped with nothing worse than a severe 
shaking:. 



ioo A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

after which the colonels of the various regiments advanced in 
turn to receive the new colours. The Due de Feltre, Minister 
for War, offered the standards to Louis XVIII. , who, aided by 
Monsieur, inclined the head of each staff, first to the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme and then to the Duchesse de Berry. The two 
princesses successively attached the tassels to the standards, 
which the King then presented to the colonels, who, escorted 
by detachments from their regiments, repaired to an altar which 
had been erected for the occasion in the middle of the Champ 
de Mars, where the new colours were solemnly blessed by the 
Grand Almoner. 

On their way back to the Tuileries, the Royal Family 
stopped for some minutes on the Place Louis XV., to watch 
Mile. Garnerin, the celebrated aeronaut, make an ascent in 
her balloon. " Mile. Garnerin," says the Journal des Debats, 
"mounted the basket of flowers which served her for a car, 
and, on the signal being given, her balloon rose slowly and very 
majestically. The young and intrepid aeronaut saluted the 
chateau (of the Tuileries) by waving a white banner embroidered 
with thefleui's de lis, and scattered upon the crowd, whose eyes 
followed her with the liveliest interest, a great quantity of 
couplets and verses in celebration of the marriage of the Due 
and Duchesse de Berry, which were eagerly contended for." 
It is satisfactory to learn that, after rising to a height of nearly 
seven thousand feet, the lady descended safely in the neighbour- 
ing plain of Vaugirard. 

The day concluded with a performance in the theatre of the 
Tuileries. 

On the 2 1st, there was a hunting-party in the Bois de 
Boulogne, and the Due and Duchesse de Berry entertained 
the Royal Family and the whole Court to a fete and a dinner- 
party at Bagatelle. " It was a delightful day ; and I enjoyed 
myself very much," writes the young princess in her journal. 

On the 22nd, the Duchesse de Berry enjoyed a well-earned 
repose from fetes and ceremonies, which she spent in writing 
long letters to her relatives at Naples, for despatch by the 
courier of the Neapolitan embassy, who was leaving that 
evening. Her impressions of the events of the last few days 
must have made very interesting reading, but, unfortunately, 
the letters do not appear to have been preserved. 

In the forenoon of the 23rd, the Duchesse de Berry held a 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 101 

reception at the Pavilion de Marsan at the Tuileries for the 
male members of the nobility, and in the evening received the 
ladies at the Elysee. 

The principal event of the following day was a gala per- 
formance at the theatre of the Tuileries. 

The 25th was devoted to a visit to Sevres, Versailles, and 
Trianon. At Trianon, Louis XVIII. gave a dinner-party to 
the princes and princesses and certain members of the Court, 
and, on their return to Paris, the Royal Family attended a grand 
ball given by the Duke of Wellington in honour of the bridal 
pair. "His lordship," writes the Moniteur, "had caused every 
preparation to be made to respond to the honour which the 
Royal Family were doing him, and the apartments were 
magnificently decorated and lighted." The Duchesse de Berry, 
who had already become an enthusiastic devotee of Terpsichore, 
did not quit the ball-room until three o'clock in the morning. 

On the evening of the 26th, a gala performance was given at 
the Theatre des Varietes. The following morning, the Duchesse 
de Berry drove to Malmaison with Madame, and spent a quiet 
day in the beautiful gardens, which she greatly admired ; and 
on the 28th, the series of official fetes terminated with a gala 
performance at the Opera-Italien, consisting of la Primavera 
felice, an intermhde by Pair, composed for the marriage, followed 
by F Heureuse journce, ou le 17 Juin, a vaudeville by Desangiers 
and Gentil, and concluding with a grand ballet. 1 

The termination of the official festivities did not bring any 
repose to the Duchesse de Berry, who was as indefatigable in 
her pursuit of pleasure as was that other Italian princess whom 
in many respects she so closely resembles — Marie Adelaide of 
Savoy, Duchesse de Bourgogne ; and hunting-parties, balls, and 
visits to the play continued to occupy a considerable portion 
of her time. Nor was her activity confined to mere amuse- 
ments. She visited hospitals and alms-houses, museums, picture- 
galleries, manufactories, and places of historic interest in and 
around Paris ; took lessons in painting, music and dancing, and 
held receptions ; in a word, her energy appears to have been 
boundless. 

The Due and Duchesse de Berry were very happy in their 

1 Journal inedit de la Duchesse de Berry ; Moniteur, June 19-30, 1816 ; fournal 
des Dibats, June 19-30, 18 16. 



102 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

married life. The latter was attracted from the first by her 
bluff, good-natured husband, with his ruddy complexion, his 
broad shoulders, his pleasant smile, and his hearty laugh, and 
soon conceived for him a sincere affection. As for the duke, 
his devotion to the opposite sex was such that it would have 
been difficult for him to have been much in the society of any 
woman who was in the least attractive without falling in love 
with her ; and if his young wife failed to comply with any of 
the recognised standards of beauty, her lovely fair hair, her 
dazzling complexion, her pleasing expression, and her pretty 
hands and feet, joined to the freshness and vivacity of youth, 
made up a very charming personality, and won her a host of 
admirers wherever she went. 

The Due de Berry was not the least enthusiastic among 
them, and, though, as we shall presently see, his unfortunate 
sensibility to feminine charms rendered it impossible for him 
to give to his consort that whole-hearted devotion which she 
had the right to expect, there can be no question that he was 
very warmly attached to her. By a happy coincidence, there 
existed between husband and wife a resemblance in character 
and tastes very unusual in the case of royal personages ; 
indeed, notwithstanding the difference of age which separated 
them, it would have been difficult to find a better-matched 
pair. Both had the same generous impulses, the same love of 
the arts, the same passion for pleasure. Both had the same 
dislike of the constraints of etiquette, and desired nothing so 
ardently as to be allowed to forget that they were Royal 
Highnesses. At the Elysee, free from the wearisome ceremonial 
which weighed so heavily upon the inmates of the Tuileries, the 
duke and duchess lived in the simplicity of an almost bourgeois 
existence. " They dance and amuse themselves, they promenade, 
they frequent the theatres, patronise the artists, visit studios, 
buy pictures, run the risks of the Opera-ball, and the young 
princess is never happier than when she can remember that 
she is young and forget that she is a princess." x 

Often they might be seen going out together, on foot and 
unattended, by the gate which opens on to the Champs-Elysees, 
and, descending the avenue, mingle familiarly with the pro- 
menaders. Sometimes they were to be met with in the shops, 

1 Portmartin, cited by Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de 
Louis XVIII. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 103 

where they made extensive purchases and allowed themselves 
to be shamefully imposed upon, in the museum and picture- 
galleries, or in the humble dwelling of one or other of their 
numerous pensioners. 

Many were the amusing adventures which they encountered 
in the course of these expeditions. On one occasion, they had 
seated themselves on two chairs on the Champs-Elysees, but 
when the ticket-collector came, they found that they had no 
money upon them. They explained who they were, promising 
to send a servant to discharge their debt as soon as they returned 
to the Elysee ; but the collector was angrily incredulous and 
bade them at once vacate the chairs, since they had not the 
money to pay for them. 

Another time, while walking on the Boulevards, they were 
overtaken by a storm. A young man with an umbrella happen- 
ing to pass by, the Due de Berry begged the loan of it to shelter 
his companion. The young man, who evidently suspected 
them of harbouring designs upon his property, hesitated, but 
eventually consented, on condition that he should accompany 
them to their house. " That is only reasonable," replied the 
duke, and they set off. They were a long way from home, 
however, and the owner of the umbrella, with growing impatience, 
kept inquiring how much further they had to go. At length, 
they arrived before the Elysee, where, on their Royal Highnesses 
being recognised, the drums beat to quarters, and the guard 
turned out and presented arms. The young man, overwhelmed 
with confusion, stammered some words of apology, and the 
prince, laughing heartily, restored his umbrella, and thanked 
him warmly for the service he had rendered him. 

One of the greatest bonds of sympathy between the Due 
and Duchesse de Berry was their love of the arts. The duke 
was an excellent judge of pictures and an indefatigable collector, 
and nothing pleased him so much as to be admitted to the 
studio of some famous painter when the latter happened to be 
at work, and to watch a picture taking shape under the master's 
brush. 

The young duchess shared her husband's enthusiasm and 
frequently accompanied him on these visits, while at the Elysee 
she surrounded herself with the best artists of the time, and took 
lessons in oil and water-colour painting, aquatint and model- 
ling. At her suggestion, the duke, who had hitherto confined his 



I04< A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

artistic efforts to drawing, for which, as we have said elsewhere, 
he possessed considerable talent, abandoned the pencil for the 
brush, and the two often spent long hours painting together. 
The prince's preference was for military subjects, and some of 
his water-colour sketches were not without merit. 

The Due de Berry had got together at the Elysee a very fine 
gallery of pictures, containing some admirable examples of the 
modern French and English schools, and to this he and his wife 
were continually adding. The collection contained evidence of 
its owners' goodness of heart, as well as of their artistic sense. 
Visitors were often surprised to see side by side with the diefs- 
d'oeuvre of the great masters, canvasses which were obviously 
the work of prentice hands, and in some of which it was difficult 
to perceive the smallest promise. Questioned one day about 
this, the duchess replied with a smile, " Poor men ! To whom 
do you suppose they would sell their pictures, if I did not buy 
them ? " 

The devotion of the royal couple to music was second only to 
their devotion to art. The Due de Berry, as we have mentioned, 
sang agreeably and played upon several instruments. His 
favourite was the cornet, upon which he is said to have attained 
quite a high degree of proficiency. The duchess cultivated the 
piano 1 and the harp, her predilection for the latter instrument 
being perhaps not unconnected with the fact that it afforded her 
opportunities for displaying the beauty of her hands and the 
smallness of her foot. 

The Due and Duchesse de Berry lived on terms of the closest 
intimacy with the officers and ladies of their respective house- 
holds. The entourage of tjie duke was composed almost entirely 
of old companions-in-arms who had shared his fortunes during 
the Emigration, and he had exercised a wise discretion in the 
selection of his wife's attendants, who were all ladies of 
unblemished reputation and of considerable personal charm. 

The princess's dame dhonneur, the beautiful Duchesse de 
Reggio, wife of Mardchal Oudinot, was a woman of rare merit, 
who had succeeded by her amiability, dignity, and good-sense in 
establishing her position in an environment which was quite new 
and entirely hostile. It was a striking testimony to the universal 

1 Madame de Boigne {Recits d'une tante) speaks of the Duchesse de Berry 
" murdering pieces upon the piano," but the general opinion of her contemporaries 
appears to be that she had a real talent for music and played remarkably well. 




MARIE CAROLINE, DUCHESSE DE BERRY 

FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PICTURE BY HE--SE 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 105 

esteem in which she was held that, though the bestowal of Court 
appointments upon representatives of the Imperial rigime 
usually provoked the bitter resentment of the Royalist party, 
who regarded them as their exclusive property, no one had 
ventured to criticise the propriety of this nomination. In a post 
of such responsibility, in which she was often called upon to play 
a very difficult role, the Duchesse de Reggio acquitted herself 
of her task with an unfailing vigilance and tact, and there can 
be no question that her young mistress was very greatly indebted 
to her wise counsels. Profoundly attached to the Duchesse de 
Berry, who, on her side, felt for her the warmest regard, she was 
to remain faithful to the princess in both good and evil fortune, 
and to testify for her to the end of her life the most touching 
devotion. 

Next in official rank to the Duchesse de Reggio came the 
dame d'atours, the little Comtesse de la Ferronays, wife of the 
Due de Berry's faithful aide-de-camp ; but, though an amiable 
and intelligent woman, she did not exercise nearly so much 
influence at the Elysee as the Vicomtesse, afterwards the 
Duchesse, de Gontaut, the author of the well-known Mfonoires. 
Madame de Gontaut, who had resided during part of the 
Emigration at Holyrood, and afterwards in London, from which 
she paid frequent visits to Louis XVIII.'s little Court at Hart- 
well, was a great favourite with all the members of the Royal 
Family. But, though a devoted adherent of the Bourbons, she 
was far from sharing the prejudices of the emigre" party. In 
consequence of the marriage of her cousin, the Vicomte de 
Valence, with the daughter of Madame de Genlis, she had 
shared the education of the children of " Philippe Egalite," and 
having lived much in English society and being a remarkably 
intelligent and clear-sighted woman, she recognised the 
necessity of reconciling the Restoration with liberal ideas. 
Madame de Gontaut enjoyed the special favour of the Due de 
Berry, a fact which Madame de Boigne attributes to her 
unwearying efforts to conceal from his young wife the rumours 
of his Royal Highness's " indiscretions." 

The handsome Comtesse de Bethisy was another lady who 
was high in favour at the Elysee. The countess was dis- 
tinguished for her exquisite taste in dress, and her authority in 
such matters rendered her indispensable to the Duchesse de 
Berry. 



106 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Of the four remaining dames du palais — or dames pour 
accompagner, as they were generally styled — Mesdames de 
Lauriston, d'Hautefort, de Bouille, and de Gourgues, the first- 
named had the advantage of considerable experience in her 
me'tier, having exercised the same functions with the two 
empresses ; the second was a very pretty young woman, the 
elegance of whose toilettes almost rivalled those of Madame de 
Bethisy, while, like the Duchesse de Reggio, she was sincerely 
attached to her mistress ; the third was noted for her vivacity 
and originality, and the last for her good-nature and 
embonpoint. 

The number of the princess's dames pour accompagner was, a 
little later, increased to eight, by the addition of Madame de 
Casteja, daughter of her firstalmoner, and Madame de Rosambo, 
daughter of her first equerry. Each of the "dames " received a 
salary of 8,000 francs, but only two of them were on duty at a 
time, their term of service lasting a week. 

The chief officers of the Duchesse de Berry's Household 
were all interesting personalities. The first almoner, the old 
Marquis de Bombelles, had had a singular career. Although at 
this time in his seventy-third year, he had only taken Holy 
Orders some ten years before. Beginning life as an officer in 
the Seven Years' War, the close of which found him a captain 
of hussars, he subsequently adopted the profession of diplomacy, 
without, however, renouncing that of arms, and, after serving as 
Secretary of Legation in several capitals, became Ambassador, 
first at Lisbon and then at Venice. In 1791 and 1792 he was 
charged by Louis XVI. with secret missions to Vienna, St. 
Petersburg, Copenhagen, and Stockholm ; and in the latter year 
fought in the army of Ferdinand of Brunswick at Valmy. On 
the retreat of the Allies from French soil, he withdrew to 
Switzerland, where he lived until 1800, when he emerged from 
his retirement to join the corps of Conde, in which he served 
until it was disbanded three years later. He then found an 
asylum in Austria, but, overwhelmed by grief at the death of his 
wife, he resolved to renounce the world, and in 1804 entered a 
Convent at Briinn, in Moravia. From that time he consecrated 
himself entirely to his religious duties, and was so much esteemed 
that he was appointed a canon of Breslau, and subsequently 
made Bishop of Ober-Glogau. At the Restoration, he resigned 
his episcopate and returned to France, and, after sharing the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 107 

fortunes of Louis XVIII. during the Hundred Days, received the 
reward of his fidelity to the Bourbons by being nominated 
Almoner to the Duchesse de Berry, while, in 18 19, he received 
the bishopric of Amiens. 

Although his piety was undoubted, he was a genial soul with 
nothing of the divot about him, and once, at the Elysee, when 
the Duchesse de Berry had suggested an impromptu dance, 
and no musician happened to be forthcoming, Bombelles seated 
himself at the piano and played right merrily. He had also a 
keen sense of humour, as the following story will show : 

Soon after his appointment to the see of Amiens, he attended 
a reception, accompanied by his sons. 1 The groom of the 
chambers was about to announce " the Bishop of Amiens and 
his sons," when Bombelles, recognising that such an announce- 
ment might provoke some astonishment among those who were 
unaware that he had only embraced an ecclesiastical career very 
late in life, stopped him. " Say," said he, with a smile, " the 
Bishop of Amiens and the nephews of the Comte de Bombelles 
(his brother)." 

The Due de Levis, the princess's chevalier tfhonneur, was 
one of those nobles who had emigrated at the Revolution, but 
returned to France after Brumaire, without, however, in any way 
identifying themselves with the new regime. In the interval 
he had taken part in the ill-fated Quiberon expedition, in which, 
though wounded, he succeeded in making his way to one of the 
English ships, thus escaping the fate of his captured comrades, 
who were all shot in cold blood. The duke was a writer of 
considerable distinction, and was among those nominated 
members of the Academie-Francaise by the royal ordinance of 
March 1816. Louis XVIII. playfully said that "he intended 
him to represent philosophy with his niece." 

The first equerry, the Comte de Mesnard, was a member of 
a Vendeen family devoted to the cause of the Bourbons. Born 
in the same year as Napoleon, 2 he had been a fellow-pupil of 
the future Emperor at Brienne, which he quitted to enter the 
Regiment of the Comte de Provence, as Louis XVIII. then was. 
He emigrated at the Revolution, followed his future sovereign 

1 His youngest son, Charles Rene, Comte de Bombelles, became Grand Master of 
the Household of Marie Louise at Parma, and in 1833 contracted a morganatic 
marriage with the ex-Empress, who had lost her beloved Neipperg three years 
before. 

2 And not in 1762, as the Vicomte de Reiset states. 



108 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

to Coblentz, and served in the Army of the Princes in the 
invasion of 1792 and in several subsequent campaigns. In 1797 
he withdrew to England, but in 1800 repaired to Mittau and 
joined Louis XVIII., with whom he remained two years, very 
honourably refusing the First Consul's offer of the restoration 
of his confiscated estates if he would forsake the Bourbons. 
Returning to England, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the 
Due de Berry, who soon conceived for him a warm friendship, 
and in 18 14 was one of those who accompanied the prince when 
he landed at Cherbourg. 

Mesnard was a tall, distinguished-looking man, whose charm- 
ing manners and witty and interesting conversation made him a 
great favourite in Society, notwithstanding that he was some- 
what haughty and self-opinionated. Both the Due and 
Duchesse de Berry held him in the highest esteem, and were 
accustomed to consult him in all matters of importance ; indeed, 
he appears to have been regarded as the Mentor of the Elysee. 
After the tragic death of the duke, it will be Mesnard to whom 
the young princess will turn for counsel ; and gossip, misinter- 
preting this intimacy, will find in it material for a most un- 
pleasant scandal. 1 

With the inmates of the Tuileries the Duchesse de Berry was 
on the most affectionate terms. In appearance, at least, no 
royal family was more united than that of France, and every 
evening with unfailing regularity its members assembled at the 
King's dinner-table. On these occasions, it was pleasant to see 
the smile which would light up his Majesty's heavy features when 
the young princess appeared, the gallant manner in which he 
would kiss her hand, the delicate attentions which he would pay 
her, and the interest with which he would listen while she 
prattled merrily away about her day's doings, of which, by his 
own desire, she never failed to render him a circumstantial 
account. 

1 In vi ew of these reports, it is interesting to learn that, in the early days of the 
Duchesse de Berry's marriage, Mesnard came very near to losing his life at her 
hands. The little Court of the Elysee was one day diverting itself in the gardens by 
the time-honoured pastime of "touch," and Mesnard was pursuing the princess and 
had almost overtaken her, when the young lady snatched up a pistol which had been 
left upon a bench and levelled it straight at the count's head, without imagining for 
one moment that it was loaded. It happened to be so, however, and, had she 
accidentally pressed the trigger, the post of first equerry to her Royal Highness would 
have forthwith become vacant. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 109 

For, for the infirm, world-weary old monarch, who passed 
the greater part of his days in an arm-chair, nursing a gouty 
foot and cudgelling his brains to discover some means of recon- 
ciling the contending factions which distracted his realm, this 
joyous, impulsive little daughter of the South possessed very 
much the same attraction which the Duchesse de Bourgogne 
had had for Louis XIV. 1 From the first moment he had felt 
himself drawn to her, less by what physical attractions she 
possessed, 2 than by her gaiety and animation — by the good- 
humour which seemed, so to speak, to radiate from her little person 
and communicate itself to all about her. Soon he was com- 
pletely captivated. When he heard her joyous laugh, while he 
listened to her merry prattle, he could forget for a moment his 
cares and his infirmities, and feel that, in spite of gout, " Ultras," 
and Jacobins, there was still some pleasure left for him in life. 

Great stickler in matters of etiquette as he was, to the ador- 
able caprices of the young princess all was forgiven. Even un- 
punctuality, usually an unpardonable offence in the eyes of 
the author of the phrase " V exactitude est la politesse des rois" 
provoked but the mildest of protests. When, as not infrequently 
happened, she arrived at the Tuileries when all the Royal 
Family had already taken their places at the dinner-table, for 
his Majesty's meals were invariably served on the stroke of 
the hour, the old King would content himself with drawing from 
his fob his enormous watch and silently indicating with his 
finger the accusing minute-hand. Then the princess, in pretty 
confusion, would proceed to excuse herself and offer the 
most plausible explanations of her late arrival, and all the 
Royal Family would laugh heartily, for she had conquered 
them all. 3 

Yes ; she had conquered them all ! Even the austere 
Duchesse d'Angouleme, saddened and embittered by so many 
trials and humiliations, had not been proof against the charm of 
that frank, joyous nature. She seems, indeed, to have felt for 
the girl the affectionate interest which an elder sister might feel 
for a younger, and seldom a day passed without her visiting the 

1 See the author's " Rose of Savoy" (London, Methuen ; New York, Scribner, 
1909). 

2 " Eyes, nose, mouth, nothing is pretty," wrote the King to Decazes on the day 
of their meeting at the Croix de Saint-H^rem, "all is charming, made to paint, 
complexion of lilies and roses." 

3 Henri Bouchot, le Luxe francais : la Restaur ation. 



no A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

princess at the Elysee, or accompanying her on some drive or 
excursion. 1 

The timid and reserved Due d'Angouleme shared the senti- 
ments of his wife for the little princess, and, though he was so 
uncomfortable in a drawing-room that he never entered one 
without thinking how soon he could decently get out of it, made 
an exception in favour of that of the Elysee. 

As for the Comte d'Artois, he was quite delighted with his 
new daughter-in-law. Since the death of Madame de Polastron, 
Monsieur, faithful to the oath of fidelity which he had sworn 
to her on her death-bed, had abandoned gallantry for a very 
rigid devotion. But this renunciation did not prevent him from 
appreciating a charming woman when one happened to cross his 
path, and, if he no longer aspired to the conquest of hearts, he 
still found pleasure in feminine society, and could pass a pretty 
compliment as well as any petit-maitre in France. A man of 
cultured tastes, even in the days of his unregenerate youth, 
when he had cast " benevolent glances " at Sophie Arnould 2 and 

1 Madame de Boigne, in her interesting but rather malicious Memoires, declares 
that the Duchesse d'Angouleme tried to guide her sister-in-law " with the acerbity of 
a governess," with the result that the latter, after being at first afraid of her, soon 
came to detest her. It is probable that the accuracy of this statement is on a par 
with the countess's assertion that "the Duchesse de Berry arrived in France in a 
state of total and profound ignorance and could hardly read." Any way, it is 
strangely inconsistent with the tone of the following letter, written by Madame to 
her sister-in-law from Vichy, in the summer of 1816, which has certainly nothing of 
the acerbity of a governess about it : 

' ' I received yesterday, my dear sister, your amiable letter. I am very sensible to 
the friendship which you show for me and to the interest which you take in my journey. 
It has passed off well, and so much the more agreeably that everywhere on my 
journey I have heard you spoken of and in a way which has given me pleasure. You 
have left there many souvenirs. People recollect and repeat how kind and amiable 
you have been to all the world. I know a thousand little details that your modesty 
has prevented you from making known and which do credit to your heart. Mine, I 
assure you, rejoices greatly at all the successes which you have had. I am very 
pleased at what you tell me, that you have conquered your timidity and spoken to 
nearly all the ladies who have paid their court to you. The more you understand 
the French, the more you will appreciate the necessity of taking pains for them, of 
seeking to please them, and of making yourself beloved by them. Since the Revolu- 
tion, this is more necessary than ever, and I am very sure, if you desire it, you will 
continue to succeed. Adieu, my very dear sister, continue your friendship for me and 
count always on that very sincere friendship which I have vowed to you. With 
which I embrace you and am your very attached friend and sister, 

" Marie-Ther£se " 

2 Mbnoires secrets de la ripublique des lettres, vol. viii. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE in 

settled Mile. Contat's milliner's bills, 1 he had always looked for 
something more than beauty in the opposite sex, and the 
Duchesse de Berry pleased him infinitely. Many were 
the visits which the princess paid to the Pavilion de Marsan, 
and it was soon remarked that Monsieur seemed to regard 
her with as much affection as if she were his own daughter. 

The Duchesse de Berry also appears to have made a very 
favourable impression upon the aged Prince de Conde. Since 
the judicial murder of his grandson, the Due d'Enghien — the 
hope of his race — the gallant old general of the emigres had 
fallen into a condition of profound melancholy, and, on his 
return to France at the Restoration, he had retired to a pavilion 
which had been left standing amid the ruins of Chantilly, where 
he lived a very secluded life, seldom appearing at Court. The 
burden of his years and his sorrows had to some extent affected 
his mind, and his memory often failed him. 2 Nevertheless, 
when the Due de Berry, to whom he was much attached, 
brought his young wife to Chantilly, he roused himself from his 
ordinary lethargy and did the honours of that once magnificent 
residence with all the gallantry of the old regime; and the 
little princess's visit seemed to give him so much pleasure that 
it was several times repeated. Their friendship, however, was 
not of long duration, as the old warrior died on May 13, 1818, 
in his eighty-third year. Almost his last words are said to have 
been : " Oit est la gnewe ? En avant ! " 

When, in the early spring of 1817, the Due and Duchesse 
d'0rl<£ans, who, it will be remembered, had been in England at 

1 For an account of the relations between the Comte d'Artois and Mile. Contat, 
see the author's "Later Queens of the French Stage" (London, Harper; New 
York, Scribner, 1906). 

2 Apropos of the old prince's failing memory, Nettement relates an amusing 
anecdote. One day, soon after his return to France, he received a visit of ceremony 
from Talleyrand, a personage for whom he entertained the most profound aversion. 
Conde mistook, or pretended to mistake, the Grand Chamberlain for the latter's 
uncle, the Archbishop of Rheims, one of his oldest friends. Talleyrand, perhaps 
not altogether sorry for the misunderstanding, which had spared him a very embarrass- 
ing interview, did not attempt to undeceive him, and they conversed very pleasantly 
for some time. When his visitor rose to go, the prince observed : " M. l'Archeveque, 
come and see me as often as you will ; I shall always be pleased to receive you ; but 
please do not bring your nephew, the Prince de Benevent (Talleyrand)." " Now 
that I am informed of the sentiments of your Most Serene Highness," replied the 
other, with his imperturbable sang-froid, " I can promise you that the Prince de 
Benevent will never present himself before you." 



ii2 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the time of the princess's wedding, returned to the Palais-Royal, 
the Duchesse de Berry became a frequent visitor there, and 
often received her uncle and aunt at the Elysee. This intimacy 
met with the cordial approval of the Due de Berry, who had 
always entertained the friendliest sentiments towards his cousin 
and had often defended him against the aspersions of the 
imigrts, but it was viewed with but little favour by the inmates 
of the Tuileries. Louis XVIII., indeed, regarded the head of 
the younger branch of his family with a profound distrust, which 
was certainly not without justification. 

On the fall of the Empire, Louis-Philippe had returned to 
Paris, where the King reinstated him in his rank of lieutenant- 
general, nominated him colonel-general of hussars, conferred 
upon him the cross of Saint-Louis, and restored to him not only 
his appanages, but all the property of his father which had not 
been alienated. It is believed, however, that his Majesty, in 
thus reconstituting, almost by a stroke of the pen, the colossal 
fortune of the Orleans family, was actuated far less by affection 
for his nephew than by the hope of compromising him for ever 
in the eyes of the party of the Revolution. 

If such were the case, he must have been very painfully 
disillusioned, for, though Louis-Philippe resumed possession of 
his inheritance, and was profuse in his professions of gratitude 
and loyalty, he caressed discreetly the Liberal party none the 
less ; and it soon became apparent that, as the only member of 
his House who held enlightened opinions, he enjoyed a most 
dangerous popularity with those who were dissatisfied with the 
maladroit and reactionary government of the Restoration. In 
point of fact, at the moment of Napoleon's return from Elba, a 
conspiracy had actually been set on foot with the object of 
placing him upon the throne, though it is only fair to the prince 
to observe that he appears to have been unaware of its existence. 
Charged, very much against his will, by Louis XVIII. with 
the mission of arresting the " Corsican ogre," he did not succeed 
in this task, and when sent to Lille to organise the defence of 
the departments of the North, he decided, on learning of the 
withdrawal of the King to Ghent, to retire to England. He 
was probably no stranger to the intrigues of Talleyrand and 
Fouch£ after Waterloo to induce the Congress of Vienna to 
substitute him for Louis XVIII. upon the throne of France, 
and, on his return to Paris, notwithstanding his protestations of 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 113 

fidelity, the King held him more than ever in suspicion. A 
few weeks later, in consequence of a speech in the Chamber of 
Peers, which was generally interpreted as an encouragement to 
the Opposition, he received an order from his Majesty to leave 
Paris and rejoin the Duchesse d'Orleans, whom he had left at 
Twickenham, nor was it until February 18 17 that, having 
publicly protested his loyalty in a proclamation issued in London, 
he obtained permission to return to France. His conduct was 
now marked by great circumspection, and nothing either in his 
words or acts accused him of ambition. Nevertheless, he did 
not renounce the principles which ensured his popularity with 
a large section of the nation, and it was observed that Laffitte, 
Casimir Perier, Manuel, Benjamin Constant, Louis Courrier, 
Delavigne and other leaders of liberal opinion in the Chambers 
or in the Press were assiduous frequenters of the Palais-Royal. 
A warm affection had always existed between the Duchesse 
d'Orleans and her niece, and the young princess was also much 
attached to Louis-Philippe, who had been very kind to her in 
the old days in Sicily. That prince, at this time, was 
extremely anxious that Louis XVIII. should confer upon him 
the title of " Royal Highness," in place of that of " Most Serene 
Highness," which he now bore, declaring that all the ambition 
which he was able to cherish would be satisfied on the day, 
when, by the kindness and courtesy of the elder branch of the 
Royal House, this coveted title should precede the name of 
the head of the younger. It was, indeed, extremely galling to the 
duke's pride that his wife, who, as the daughter of the King of 
the Two Sicilies, was, of course, a " Royal Highness," should take 
precedence of him at Court and enjoy prerogatives which he 
was denied. Thus, at the Tuileries, he had the mortification 
of seeing both leaves of the folding-doors open to admit the 
duchess, while he was obliged to wait until one of them had 
closed again before he was ushered into his sovereign's presence. 
Informed of her uncle's desire, the Duchesse de Berry readily 
promised him her good offices, and organised a kind of benevo- 
lent conspiracy in the Royal Family to obtain from the King 
the object of his ambition. But, in this matter, Louis XVIII. 
was deaf to all persuasion. " The Due d'Orleans," said he, " is 
already sufficiently near the Throne ; I owe it to my nephews 
not to bring him any nearer." l 

1 Nettement, Memoires sur S.A.R. Madame, la Duchesse de Berri. 
I 



CHAPTER IX 

Dissensions in the Royal Family owing to the opposition between the liberal 
ideas of Louis XVIII. and the reactionary views of his brother and the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme — Indignation of the Comte d'Artois and Madame at the royal decree 
dissolving the " Chambre introuvable" — The action of the Duc'de Berry in canvassing 
openly for votes against the Government leads to a violent scene at the Tuileries — 
Prudent conduct of the Duchesse de Berry, who holds studiously aloof from politics 
and makes no distinction between the members of the rival parties — Growing 
popularity of the young princess with the Parisians — Infidelity of the Due de Berry, 
who resumes his pre-nuptial relations with Virginie Oreille — Indignation of the 
King on learning of his nephew's presence at a ball given by the danseuse — Liaison 
between the Due de Berry and Mile. Sophie de la Roche — Other amours of the 
prince — Jealousy of the duchess — Her conversation with the 'Neapolitan Ambassador, 
the Prince Castelcicala — The Duchesse de Berry gives birth to a daughter, who, 
however, dies on the following day — Humiliation inflicted by Louis XVIII. on the 
Due d'Orleans at the signing of the acte de naissance — Affair of the layette : rupture 
between the Due de Berry and the Comte de la Ferronays — Premature birth of a son, 
who only survives two hours — Disappointment of the Due de Berry — Enviable 
position of the duchess — Life at the Elysee — Birth of Mademoiselle — The etiquette of 
the royal nursery — Portrait of the Duchesse de Berry by Hesse. 

THE King's dislike of the Due d'Orleans was not the 
only cause of unpleasantness at the Court of the 
Tuileries. 
The Royal Family, itself, so united in appearance, was 
in reality divided by very marked divergencies of opinion, 
and the deference and submission shown by the princes towards 
his Majesty in public concealed dissensions often of the most 
violent nature. 

After the second Restoration, Louis XVIII., though very 
jealous of his "Divine Right," had had the good sense to 
recognise the necessity of reconciling his Government with the 
principles of 1789, and that a return to anything approaching 
the absolutism of the old regime was henceforth impossible. 
This, however, was just what his brother, the Comte d'Artois, 
who boasted of having forgotten nothing and learned nothing 
since the Revolution, was never able to comprehend, and his 
reactionary views were shared to a large extent by the 

114 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 115 

Duchesse d'Angouleme. Encouraged by them, the party of 
uncompromising Royalists — the " Ultras," as they were called — 
refused to pardon the King his liberal ideas, and in the 
tribune and in the Press bitterly denounced the policy of 
conciliation pursued by his Ministers. At the Pavilion de 
Marsan, Monsieur held a rival court to that of the King. 
Around him congregated those fanatical Emigre's, whose blind 
passions had inspired the " Chambre introuvable" and who had 
applauded the White Terror, and, if the prince and his friends 
had been permitted a free hand, it is impossible to say to what 
lengths the Royalist reprisals which followed the Second 
Restoration might not have been carried. When, on the advice 
of the Due de Richelieu, Laine, and Decazes, Louis XVIII. 
suddenly dissolved the chamber whose violence was so gravely 
compromising him (September 5, 18 16), the indignation of his 
brother and niece knew no bounds. The Comte d'Artois 
predicted the ruin of the Throne, and " the palace resounded 
with his anger and lamentations " ; l while the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme refused to receive the Ministers when they came 
to pay their court to her. 

The elections ratified the action of the King by excluding 
the most violent deputies of the reactionary party, and 
strengthening that of moderation. But this reverse did 
nothing to abate the mischievous activity of Monsieur and the 
Duchesse d'Angouleme, and the relations between Louis XVIII. 
and his family were more strained than ever, and stormy 
scenes were of by no means uncommon occurrence. A parti- 
cularly distressing one occurred in the winter of 18 16-17. 

The King, having learned that the Due de Berry, who, 
though, with the Due d'Angouleme, he had expressed his 
approval of the dissolution of the " Chambre introuvable" had 
now again veered round to the " Ultras," had been openly 
canvassing for votes against the Government, sent for him and 
rated him soundly. " The Due de Berry," writes Madame de 
Boigne, " complained to his sister-in-law. They discussed their 
common grievances, and lashed themselves to fury in the 
process. Finally, after dinner that evening, Monsieur pro- 
ceeded to expound their views to the King in no measured 
terms. The King replied with spirit. Madame and the Due 
de Berry intervened, and the quarrel reached such a pitch that 

1 Lamartine, Histoire de la Restauration. 



u6 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Monsieur declared he would quit the Court with his children. 
The King answered that there were fortresses for rebellious 
princes. Monsieur retorted that the Charter did not provide 
for State prisons — the unfortunate Charter being constantly 
invoked by those who hated it most bitterly — and on these 
amicable terms they parted." 

Madame de Boigne adds that, as the result of this scene, 
the King was unable to digest his dinner ; an attack of gout in 
the stomach supervened, and he was ill for several days 
afterwards. 1 

It was not the least merit of the Duchesse de Berry that, at 
this period, she held studiously aloof from politics. Neither 
with the King nor the princes did she even so much as refer to 
the questions which were agitating the Court and the nation. 
She was equally amiable to the " Ultras " and to the Ministers ; 
she made no distinction between the imigris and the quondam 
Bonapartists ; she meddled with none of the Court intrigues. 
In consequence, she was respected by all parties without 
exception, and at a time of violent animosities, when scurrilous 
pamphlets and revolting caricatures were constantly being 
launched against other members of the Royal Family, she 
escaped unscathed. 

Any attack upon her, indeed, would have certainly recoiled 
upon the party which had sanctioned it, for the princess was 
rapidly conquering the hearts of the Parisians, as she had 
already conquered those of her relatives. They liked this fresh 
young girl who seemed to enjoy life so thoroughly ; who threw 
etiquette to the winds and entered with all the zest of a private 
individual into the amusements of the capital ; who bowed and 
smiled so coquettishly when they saluted her ; who kept her 
carriage standing for an hour at a time before their shops, while 
she flitted from one counter to another, to emerge, at length, 
with her footmen staggering beneath the weight of her 
purchases. Before the Elysee, at the hour when she usually 
drove out, the idlers gathered in crowds to see her pass ; 
at the theatres, the audience greeted her with an enthusiasm 
which was never evoked by the presence of any of her relatives. 
She was the Marie Antoinette of the happy days, before intrigue 
and calumny had done their fatal work, the true Queen, the link 
between the Royal Family and the people. 

1 Madame de Boigne, Recti s d'une tante. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 117 

The happiness of the Duchesse de Berry, during the first 
months of her married life, would have been without a cloud if 
only she had been so fortunate as to possess a monopoly of the 
ducal affections. But, the prince, though warmly attached to his 
wife and sincerely desirous of her happiness, was quite incapable 
of fidelity. The Royal Family had for a moment cherished the 
hope that, on marrying this young princess, the Due de Berry 
would renounce the amorous adventures which had too often 
procured him a most undesirable notoriety, and the prince had 
just before his marriage assured the King that he had definitely 
discontinued his relations with the fair Virginie. So pleased 
was his Majesty at this, that, to console the danseuse for the loss 
of her royal admirer, he bestowed upon her a pension of 6000 
livres ; and his indignation was therefore intense when, during 
the winter of 1816-1817, he learned, from a report of the police, 
that, so far from having renounced the society of this siren, his 
nephew was as assiduous in his attentions as ever, and that 
the lady had just issued invitations for a ball, the expenses of 
which were to be defrayed by the Due de Berry, and at which 
he had promised to be present. 

" This report," wrote the angry monarch, " occasions me the 
more pain, since it makes me feel how greatly times have 
changed. Formerly, an order would have been given to M. 
Lenoir (the Prefect of Police). On receiving it, he would have 
sent for the damsel, and said to her: 'Mademoiselle, if your 
ball takes place, you will go and sleep at Sainte-Pelagie.' And 
there would have been no ball." l 

The Due de Berry, though he could hardly have been 
unaware of the avuncular sentiments, thought proper to ignore 
them, and duly appeared at the ball. The King was furious, 
and, sending for the delinquent, proceeded to inform him of what 
he thought of his conduct with all the strength of an excep- 
tionally powerful pair of lungs. On the rare occasions when 
his Majesty did let himself go, his wrath was a spectacle not 
easily forgotten, and, as he himself once laughingly declared, 
the sound of his " voix de cloche " might have been heard in the 
Place du Carrousel. 

"When a man marries at thirty-eight and does not settle 
down," he wrote the same day, " it proves that he sees in his 

1 M. Ernest Daudet, Une Fantaisie du due de Berry, Gaulois, September 10, 
1902. 



u8 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

wife only a mistress the more. Then there remains little hope 
of a reformation in his morals." l 

There certainly seemed to be very little hope of a reforma- 
tion in the morals of the Due de Berry, for his extra-conjugal 
attachments were by no means confined to Virginie. 

There was a Mile. Sophie de la Roche, of whom certain 
authors make an actress of the Comedie-Frangaise, and 
others a sempstress employed at the Elysee, but who was, in 
point of fact, a young lady of a highly respectable family, 
which had been ruined by the Revolution, and in whose re- 
establishment the prince had interested himself. Mile de la 
Roche's blue eyes and golden tresses so pleased the Due de 
Berry that he continued his attentions to her from 1815 or 18 16 
down to the time of his death, and, in gratitude for the zeal 
which his Royal Highness had shown on behalf of her family, 
she presented him with two fine boys. 2 

There was also a Mile. Deux de la Roserie, who lived in the 
Place-Vendome ; a Mile, de Saint-Ange, who played saucy 
soubrettes at the Theatre-Francais ; a Mile. Resica Lebreton, 
also an actress ; a Mile. Grandjean ; a Mile. Caroline Brocard, 
like Virginie Oreille, a star of the Operatic firmament ; a 
Madame Bellamy, a bewitching widow ; and, it is to be feared, 
not a few others, whose names, however, history has not 
preserved. 3 

1 M. Ernest Daudet, Une Fantaisie du due de Berry, Gaulois, September 10, 
1902. M. Daudet does not mention to whom this or the preceding letter was 
written. 

2 The elder son, Charles Ferdinand, born in 1817, was, after the death of the 
Due de Berry, treated with great kindness by the Royal Family. As he grew up, he 
bore the most striking resemblance to his father, for which reason, perhaps, the 
Duchesse de Berry took a great interest in him. She procured him a commission first 
in an infantry and afterwards in a cavalry regiment in the Austrian army, and during 
the later years of the princess's life he frequently visited her at Brunsee. The Comte 
de la Roche was still alive a few years ago, at which time he was residing at Gratz. 

His younger brother, also called Charles Ferdinand, was, like the Comte de 
Chambord, a posthumous son, being born in 1820, a few weeks after the Due de 
Berry's assassination. He studied painting under Paul Delaroche, became himself a 
painter of some distinction, and exhibited portraits of Napoleon III. and the Empress 
Eugenie at the Salon of 1857. He married a Mile. Dole, by whom he had two sons, 
who both followed their father's profession. — Vicomte de Reiset, les En/ants du due 
de Berry. 

3 More than one of the above-mentioned ladies left children who pretended to 
royal origin, but, as their claims were never acknowledged by the Bourbons, who 
were perfectly willing to recognise those of the Browns, the Oreilles, and the La 
Roches, they appear to be very doubtful. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 119 

The Due de Berry took every precaution to conceal his 
"indiscretions" from his wife, 1 but, though she remained in 
blissful ignorance of most of them, it was impossible to hide all, 
and the young princess was very angry indeed. If we are to 
believe Madame de Boigne, the Neapolitan Ambassador, the 
Prince Castelcicala, who had known her from childhood, and 
whom she selected as the confidant of her wrongs, took upon 
himself the task of blunting the edge of jealousy, and, " in 
answer to her fury and lamentations," gravely assured her that 
all men had mistresses — the only honourable exception, to 
his knowledge, being the Due d'Angouleme — that their wives 
knew and condoned it, and that, in short, it would be very 
foolish of her to rebel against conditions which were so 
universal. 

The princess made particular inquiries concerning the 
Due d'Orleans, and wished to know if he were as bad as the 
rest. 

"Most certainly, Madame," answered the Ambassador, 
without hesitation. " For whom do you take him ? " 

" And my aunt is aware of it ? " 

"Undoubtedly, Madame, the Duchesse d'Orleans is too 
wise to take offence at such a thing." 

1 These precautions occasionally revealed to the prince little matters connected 
with his household of which he would otherwise have remained in ignorance. In the 
article entitled les demi-Bourbons which he contributed to the Carnet of November 
1902, M. La Resie relates an amusing anecdote, which he had from the Marquis de 
Sassenay, whose functions of secretary of orders to the Duchesse de Berry obliged 
him to reside at the Elysee : 

"Every evening, when he had dismissed his attendants, the duke quitted the 
palace, which he did not regain until an advanced hour of the night ; but, fearing the 
vigilance of the duchess, and careful of his own dignity, he took the precaution of 
returning sometimes by one door, sometimes by another. One morning, about three 
o'clock, as he was about to pass through the kitchens to reach his apartments, he was 
astounded to perceive an enormous fire blazing in the grate, by the side of which lay 
a scullion, wrapped in a profound slumber. Quick to anger, the duke struck the 
servant a heavy blow on the shoulder, exclaiming : ' What are you doing there, 
animal ? ' The man jumped up, aghast, and cried : f Monseigneur, Monseigneur, I 
am making cinders ! ' At this period, cinders commanded a ready sale, and his 
Royal Highness's servants, finding their little perquisites insufficient, had arranged 
that every night one of their number should devote himself to this remunerative 
operation." 

The prince, it appears, not only took no steps to punish the offenders, but did not 
even mention the matter, except to a few of his friends whose discretion could be 
relied upon ; and, presumably, the practice still continued. After all, it/was better to 
lose a few cartloads of wood than to risk being called upon by his wife to explain 
his presence in the palace kitchens at three o'clock in the morning. 



120 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

After this conversation, the princess became more disposed 
to accept the situation. Nevertheless, she was frequently 
seized with fits of jealousy, and, had it not been for the efforts 
of Madame de Gontaut, it is probable that the harmony of the 
Elysee would have been very seriously disturbed. 

In the early days of July 1817, all Royalist France was on 
the tiptoe of expectation. " The Duchesse de Berry is near her 
time," writes Madame de Remusat to her husband on July 7, 
"and we are expecting to learn of her delivery from one moment 
to another. It would be fortunate if the event took place 
to-morrow for the anniversary of the second entry of the King." 
And three days later : " We are all listening with cocked ears 
here to hear the cannon-shots which are to announce the delivery 
of the Duchesse de Berry. The horses for the King's carriage 
remain harnessed day and night, and the Ministers have been 
warned to be in readiness ; for it seems to be their desire that 
the accouchement should take place in the presence of a 
numerous company." 1 

At length, on July 13, at twenty-five minutes past eleven 
in the forenoon, in the presence of the whole Royal Family, the 
Chancellor, the Ministers, and the grandees of the Court, the 
Duchesse de Berry gave birth to a daughter, who was described 
in her arte de naissance, which the Chancellor immediately pro- 
ceeded to draft, as the very high and puissant Princesse Louise 
Isabelle d'Artois, Mademoiselle, 2 granddaughter of France. 

It had been arranged that the birth of a prince should be 
announced by the discharge of twenty-four guns, that of a 
princess by twelve. Anxiously were the discharges counted by 
the expectant public, and when no thirteenth gun came to 
rouse its enthusiasm, loud were the expressions of disappoint- 
ment. Nevertheless, the city was illuminated in the evening, 
and verses composed for the occasion were sung at the theatres. 

The rejoicings terminated abruptly, for, on the following 
morning, a bulletin posted up at the Elysee announced that 
the health of the infant princess was causing the doctors in 

1 Correspondance de M. de Remusat, vol. iii. 

2 The little princess had been given the official title of Madenioiselle, which, 
under the old regime, had been borne by the eldest daughter of the Sovereign's eldest 
brother, because neither Mo?isieur nor his eldest son, the Due d'Angouleme, had 
a daughter. Similarly, the Duchesse d'Angouleme was designated Madame, because 
Monsieur was a widower. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 121 

attendance grave anxiety, and at nine o'clock the same evening 
she died. 

The mortal remains of the poor child were deposited, 
according to custom, in a double coffin of wood and lead covered 
with white satin, in the centre of which was a plaque inscribed 
with her name and titles. The coffin was exposed during the 
1 6th at the Elysee, on a platform covered with white draperies 
embroidered with the Arms of France, and at nine o'clock in 
the evening transported to Saint-Denis, the Gardes du corps, 
carrying torches, forming the escort. Bombelles, the Duchesse de 
Levi's, and Madame de Gontaut accompanied the cortege, and, 
on its arrival at Saint-Denis, the Almoner " pronounced a sort 
of funeral oration, in which, not being able to bestow other 
praises on the deceased, he vaunted her beauty and freshness." * 

The ephemeral existence of the Duchesse de Berry's firstborn 
gave rise to two very unpleasant episodes. 

One happened at the signing of the acte de naissance, when 
the King, who, since the Hundred Days, never lost an opportu- 
nity of reminding Louis- Phillipe of the impassable gulf which 
separated the elder branch of the Royal House from the 
younger, refused to allow the pen to be tendered to that prince 
either by the Chancellor, the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, 
or even the Master, and kept his mortified kinsman standing 
before the table on which the document lay for some minutes, 
while an Assistant-Master was being fetched. 

The other, which seriously disturbed the peace of the 
Elysee, and brought about a fresh and, this time, a final rupture 
between the Due de Berry and the faithful La Ferronays, 
occurred over the layette. 

It was customary for the King to give the layette for the 
children of the Sons of France, and one of extreme magnificence 
had been sent to the Comtesse de Montsoreau, mother of 
Madame de la Ferronays, who had been appointed gozivernante 
to the little princess. 

Now, according to usage, the layette, in the event of the 
death of a child, became the property of the gonvemante, and, 
if the poor little princess had survived a few days, it is probable 
that Madame de Montsoreau's right to it would have remained 
u nquestioned. But, in the present instance, the King, being of 
opinion that it only belonged to a g07iver?iante who had actually 

1 Vieil-Castel, Histoire de la Restauration . 



122 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

performed her duties, sent Papillon de la Ferte, the Intendant of 
the Menus-Plaisirs, to the Elysee to demand its restoration. 

" Madame de Montsoreau," writes Madame de Gontaut, 
" not having received any direct orders from the Due de Berry, 
refused to give it up ; and in the evening the same demand was 
met with the same refusal. Madame de Montsoreau, meeting 
Monseigneur and finding him very grieved at the loss of his 
child, did not dare to speak to him about the layette. 

" Madame de Montsoreau's two refusals to obey the order 
of the King appeared to the Intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs 
almost a crime of lese-majeste'. He went to find Monseigneur to 
tell him about it, met him in the Champs-Elysees, returning 
from Bagatelle, and complained bitterly of the gouverante. 
Monseigneur, ignorant of the facts, but very angry, reached the 
Elysee in this condition of mind, and, as ill luck would have it, 
met M. de la Ferronays at that very moment. He accused 
his mother-in-law of an ignoble motive, and M. de la Ferronays, 
being unable to support this imputation, so far forgot himself as 
to fail in respect to the prince, who caught up two swords and 
offered one of them to him. M. de la Ferronays refused it and 
replied : c A gentleman does not fight with the heirs to the 
throne, but he leaves them.' And he withdrew. The Due de 
Berry threw himself into the carriage from which he had just 
alighted, and went in all haste to assure the King that a dis- 
obedience to his orders could only have arisen through a mis- 
understanding of which he was ignorant. On his return to the 
Elysee, he learned that M. and Madame de la Ferronays and 
their children, and M. and Madame de Montsoreau, had already 
left the palace." l 

The prince was very sorry indeed next day for the violence 
into which his unfortunate temper had betrayed him ; but this 
time he had gone too far. And so he lost the faithful friend of 
twenty years, and his wife her dame d'atoiirs, who was succeeded, 
a few months later, by Madame de Gontaut ; while Suzette de 
la Tour, daughter of the princess's former gouverna?ite, who had 
followed the Duchesse de Berry from Naples and married the 
Comte de Meffray, took Madame de Gontaut's place. 

1 Different accounts of this affair are given by Madame de Boigne, the Marechal 
de Castellane, and other chroniclers ; but Madame de Gontaut, the confidante of both 
the Due and Duchesse de Berry, must certainly have been in a position to know the 
facts. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 123 

The Duchesse de Berry possessed an excellent constitution, 
and, notwithstanding the grief which the loss of her little 
daughter occasioned her, her recovery was rapid. On August 
6, she was able to walk in the Elysee gardens, leaning on her 
husband's arm, and before the end of the month she had resumed 
her habitual activity, her reappearance in public being hailed 
with great enthusiasm by the Parisians. 

The autumn and winter were uneventful. The princess gave 
several balls and concerts at the Elysee, went frequently to the 
play, and held two receptions every Sunday, one for the ladies 
of the Court, the other for the gentlemen. Her mornings were 
occupied by painting and music-lessons, and after dejeuner she 
drove out, sometimes to visit a public institution or State 
manufactory, such as Sevres, La Savonnerie, or the Gobelins. 

In the spring, she was again pregnant, but this interesting 
fact was not made public until August 25, 18 18 — the day on 
which the new statue of Henri IV. was unveiled on the Pont- 
Neuf — when the Moniteiir contained the following announce- 
ment : 

" It is on the Feast of Saint-Louis, the day of the inauguration 
of the statue of Henri IV., that it is sweet to be permitted to 
announce that the condition of H.R.H. the Duchesse de Berry 
promises a new scion of the august Bourbon dynasty." 

Unhappily, this hope, like its predecessor, was not fulfilled, 
for, owing to some imprudence on the part of the young princess, 
the new scion, who had not been expected until the end of the 
year, arrived in the early morning of September 13, and only 
lived two hours. 

Notwithstanding her sufferings, the Duchesse de Berry had 
the presence of mind to request Monseigneur de Bombelles to 
lose not a moment in baptizing her child, and the almoner did 
so, which was " a veritable consolation for her Royal Highness 
and the reward of the pious sentiments by which she is 
animated." l No name, however, was given him, and he was 
described upon his coffin, which was transported to Saint -Denis 
the same evening and laid beside that of his sister, as the " Very 

high and very puissant Prince N of Artois, grandson of 

France." 

The loss of this little son was a sore disappointment to the 
Due de Berry, who seems to have felt their common misfortune 

1 Moniteur, September 14, 181 8. 



124 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

far more keenly than the young mother, who soon recovered 
her health and was as indefatigable as ever in her pursuit of 
pleasure. Calling one day at the Palais-Royal and finding the 
little Due de Chartres — a great favourite of his — with Louis- 
Philippe, he drew the boy to him, and observed, with a melan- 
choly smile : " Here is a fine lad, who has perhaps a high 
fortune before him. My wife cannot give me any more children, 
or, at any rate, nothing but daughters, and then the Crown will 
pass to your son." To which the Due d'Orleans replied, with 
his usual tact : " At least, Monseigneur, if one day he should 
obtain the Crown, it will be you who will give it him, as a second 
father ; for you are younger than I, and my son would receive 
all from your kindness." * 

The Due de Berry's fears were groundless, since his wife duly 
bore him another son, though the prince did not live to see that 
happy day, nor was the boy ever to ascend the throne of his 
ancestors. 

The year 1819 was probably the happiest in all the long and 
eventful life of the Duchesse de Berry. In spite of the loss of 
her two children, she was too young and of too buoyant a dis- 
position to feel much discouragement on that score, and looked 
forward with confidence to a time when, thanks to her, the 
impoverished stalk of the lily would blossom abundantly again. 
She loved her husband, and knew that, notwithstanding his 
infidelities, in which, however, his senses were far more concerned 
than his heart, he loved her too. She enjoyed the affection of 
the King and the whole Royal Family ; her Household was 
devoted to her ; she was very popular with the Court and still 
more so with the people. In short, her lot seemed one which 
any princess might well envy. 

The winter season was a very brilliant one, and the Duchesse 
de Berry passed her days in a whirl of gaiety. Her favourite 
pastime of dancing, was, however, speedily prohibited by her 
physicians, for in January she was again in a hopeful condition, 
and on March 12, Louis XVI II., in receiving a deputation from 
the city of Bordeaux, the first town in France to open its gates 
to the Bourbons in 18 14, observed that, to perpetuate the 
memory of the event of which that day was the anniversary, 
"he had a name to give some one who had not yet arrived." 

1 Nettement, Memoires sur S.A.R. Madame, la Duchesse de Berri. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 125 

A month later, the news was officially announced in the 
Moniteur. 

To guard against the possibility of a repetition of the mishap 
of the preceding year, the doctors insisted on the most rigorous 
precautions. Not only was the slightest fatigue forbidden the 
princess, but carriage exercise as well, even the short drive to 
the Tuileries. When she dined there, she went on foot, leaning 
on her husband's arm, or, if the weather happened to be wet, 
made use of a wheel-chair. 

When the spring came, the Duke and Duchess passed a good 
deal of their time in the beautiful gardens of the Elysee. " They 
made up games there," writes Madame de Gontaut, "which 
amused them very much ; the wives, children, and husbands of 
their Households came there continually, especially on Sundays. 
Nothing could be gayer or more agreeable than was Mon- 
seigneur's behaviour to those about him. All amused themselves 
and were on good terms with one another ; they were happy and 
perfectly at their ease." 1 

The patience with which the Duchesse de Berry had resigned 
herself to the regimen imposed upon her by her physicians was 
duly rewarded, and, at a few minutes after half-past six on the 
morning of September 21, she brought into the world a fine and 
healthy child. But, alas ! it was not the son so eagerly desired, 
but a daughter, the future Duchess of Parma, who, by a singular 
coincidence, was, like the Duchesse de Berry, to see her husband 
assassinated and her son exiled and despoiled of his throne. 

When the sex of the new arrival was announced by the 
surgeons, the Royal Family and the princes assembled round the 
bed could notconceal their disappointment, but the young mother, 
smiling at their downcast looks, exclaimed gaily : " After the 
girl, the boy." The King, having in accordance with custom, 
communicated the news to the Ministers and the great 
dignitaries of the Court assembled in the adjoining salon, the 
Due de Berry took the child from the surgeons and placed her 
for a moment in his wife's arms. Then Madame de Gontaut, 
who, to the disgust of the " Ultras," who had not forgiven that 
lady her former close connexion with the Orleans family, had 
been nominated to the exalted post of gouvernante of the 
children of France, received the little Mademoiselle from her 
mother, placed her on an immense cushion, and, preceded by 

1 Mimoires. 



126 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, bore her through a double 
line of the Gardes du corps to the apartments which had been 
prepared for her. 

Arrived there, the Grand Master, with a profound salutation, 
retired, and Madame de Gontaut, herself a very fond mother, 
yielded to a very natural impulse, and, sitting down, began to 
hug "her precious treasure," when the cradle-maid advanced 
and intimated respectfully yet firmly that she was committing a 
grave breach of the etiquette of the royal nursery, which reserved 
to herself the exclusive right of holding the little princess, while 
the gouvemante could only give orders. Just then the Due de 
Berry entered, and, smiling, advised Madame de Gontaut to 
establish herself as mistress forthwith, "so as to be able to 
enjoy with him and Madame 1 a domestic happiness, which 
might possibly be bourgeois, but which was the only real one." 
" Whereupon," continues the lady, " I told the elegant and pre- 
tentious attendants to go and lie down in the adjoining room, 
assuring them that I would summon them when I considered 
their services necessary. This being said in Monseigneur's 
presence, and evidently by his advice, produced an effect whose 
benefits I felt until the education of the princes was finished." 2 

The little princess was baptized the same day, and her 
certificate of birth was signed by the whole Royal Family, the 
Princes and Princesses of the Blood, the Ministers, the Grand 
Officers of the Crown, and a number of other distinguished 
persons. In all, thirty-eight signatures were attached to the 
document. 

On the following evening, the Due de Berry visited the 
Opera, where his appearance was the signal for enthusiastic 
applause, which was renewed when Derivis sang a cantata, the 
words of which had been written by the celebrated chansonnier 
Desaugiers. It concluded thus : 

" Lys eclatant de majeste, 
Le sol sacre de la patrie 
A tressailli de volupte, 
Voyant sa tige refleurie. 



1 Although, throughout her Mimoires, Madame de Gontaut always speaks of the 
Duchesse de Berry as Madame, the princess did not assume that title until after the 
death of Louis XVIII., in 1824. 

8 Madame de Gontaut, Memoires. By " princes " the writer intends us to under- 
stand Mademoiselle and the Due de Bordeaux. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 127 

Ah ! ce premier de tes presents 

De plus d'une autre est l'assurance. 

Produis une fleur tous les ans, 

C'est pour le Roi. C'est pour la France ! " 

Making every allowance for poetic rhapsodies, the de- 
mand for a fresh blossom every year seems a little un- 
reasonable ! 

The Duchesse de Berry soon recovered her health ; on 
October 27 she dined at the Tuileries, for the first time since 
her confinement, and, late in the afternoon of All Saints' Day, 
she and the duke paid an unofficial visit to the Salon. " The 
crowd was still rather large and pressed about them, restrained 
less by the guards of the Museum, who preceded them, than 
by the fear of inconveniencing the princess, who, taking her 
husband's arm and following the balustrade, stopped before not 
a few of those charming genre pictures which line the Salon. 
On the same day, their Royal Highnesses were to visit the 
studio of M. Girodet, to view in particular the picture of 
Pygmalion et Galatee." l 

Mention of pictures recalls the fact that it was in this 
year 1819 that Hesse painted his charming portrait of the 
Duchesse de Berry. The princess had conceived the idea 
of being represented not en grand habit, for, as she herself 
declared, her little figure seemed to be crushed beneath the 
diadems and jewels of the magnificent Court toilette, but in the 
ordinary outdoor costume affected by fashionable Parisian ladies 
at this period. It cannot be called an altogether elegant style 
of dress, but then she had the ease which would render possible 
the worst monstrosities of feminine attire ; and the result is 
most happy. Her oval face, framed in blonde curls, is surmounted 
by a monumental hat of black velvet adorned with plumes ; her 
bust is confined within a very high-waisted redingote, which 
imprisons a fichu fallen from her shoulders. "Never will she 
be more the Duchesse de Berry than on this canvas, neither 
pretty nor very sovereign, but rather bewitching, in such a way 
that nothing determines the supreme seduction. . . . Look at this 
portrait. 2 It is Marie-Caroline at her best — the Marie-Caroline 

1 Moniteur, November 4, 18 19. 

2 The original is now at Frohsdorf ; there is an excellent engraving of it, 
and a miniature copy, executed by Madame Andouin, in the possession of the 
Baron de Mesnard. 



128 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

of the happy days — she who trots along the boulevard ; who 
frequents the shops, who rambles in the Beaujon moun- 
tains, and threatens her father-in-law to take a ride in the 
omnibus." * 

1 M. Henri Bouchot, le Luxe Francais : la Restauration. 



CHAPTER X 

Brilliant winter season of 1819-20 — Balls at the Elysee — The Duchesse de Berry 
accompanies her husband's shooting-parties — Threatening political situation — 
Louis XVIII. and the Comte Decazes — Violent hostility of the " Ultras " to the King's 
favourite — Election of the Abbe Gregoire for Grenoble — Proposed alteration of the 
electoral system — Decazes becomes Prime Minister — Happy influence of married life 
upon the character of the Due de Berry — His charity and kindness of heart — 
Anecdote of the boy with the basket — Anecdote of the charcoal-burner — Threatening 
anonymous letters received by the Due de Berry — Gloomy presentiments of the 
prince — Ball at the Comte de Greffulhe's — A disturbing letter — Regret of the Due de 
Berry for his loss of temper at a shooting-party : his atonement — The duchess again 
pregnant — Visit of the Due and Duchesse de Berry to the Opera on the evening of 
Shrove- Sunday, February 13, 1820. 

THE winter season of 1819-20 was a most brilliant one, 
and up to the end of the Carnival the fetes succeeded 
one another almost without interruption. 
The Due and Duchesse de Berry gave two great balls, one 
in December, the other at the end of January. The last was a 
particularly splendid affair. It began at half-past ten ; supper 
was served at half-past two, and dancing continued until nearly 
six o'clock in the morning. The Duchesse de Berry's toilette 
on this occasion was "une robe de bal lame'e d' argent, a bouquets 
bleus, par tire de turquoises et diamants." 1 

The princess did not confine her energies to balls, recep- 
tions, and other indoor amusements. Her husband had had a 
light gun with silver mountings made for her, and was teaching 

1 If we are to believe Castellane, much surprise was expressed that the ball had 
not been postponed, on account of the death of the Duke of Kent, which had 
occurred on the 23rd. " People have been generally astonished by this ball," he 
writes, " as the Due de Berry was aware of the death of the Duke of Kent and had 
lived on intimate terms with the English Royal Family during the Emigration. He 
gave as a pretext that this death had not been officially notified ; but no one has 
found this excuse sufficient. Some people pretend that the English Ambassador 
was asked to defer the notification. One does not forget how kind the Duke of 
Kent was to the princes in their misfortune. It shows, at least, want of tact." — 
Journal du Marichal de Castellane, January 29, 1820. 
K 129 



130 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

her to shoot ; and sometimes, dressed in a coquettish toilette de 
chasse consisting of a " redingote of green velvet with lapels 
of amaranth velvet and gilt buttons, and a hat of black felt 
adorned with feathers," she accompanied him on his shooting 
expeditions. Thus, on January 17, 1820, we find her assisting 
at a shooting-party at La Muette, on which occasion she 
proudly records in her journal that " her Charles had killed four 
boars, seven roebuck, four pheasants and a rabbit." 1 

If the social horizon was without a cloud, the political one, 
which for some months had been comparatively serene, was 
again overcast, and the King's speech at the opening of the 
session of the Chambers, on November 23, alluded in unmistak- 
able terms to the political passions which were threatening to 
rend the country asunder : " I cannot conceal from myself that 
just motives of apprehension mingle with our hopes, and claim 
henceforward our most serious attention. A vague but 
positive anxiety preoccupies all minds. Every one demands 
of the present pledges of its stability. The nation but im- 
perfectly enjoys the fruits of peace and good order ; it fears to 
see them snatched away by the violence of factions, it fears 
their thirst for domination ; it is alarmed by the too obvious 
expression of their designs." 

Faction, indeed, at that moment reigned supreme, and Louis 
XVIII. found himself in a very embarrassing position. Com- 
pelled after Waterloo to part with his beloved Blacas, the King 
to whom a favourite, male or female, was a necessity of existence 
had replaced him by the Comte Decazes, 2 a comparatively 
young man of middle-class origin, who, after being judge of the 

1 Vicomte de Reiset, Marie- Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. 

2 " A favourite is a necessity to the King. . . . Before the Revolution and 
during a part of the Emigration, the Comtesse de Baiby ruled him. She took it 
into her head to have twins by the Comte Archambaud de Perigord. The King, 
who had up till then been the best friend of the lovers, sent her by M. d'Hautefort, 
for a long time very much favoured by her, a note in which he wrote to her : ' The 
wife of Caesar ought to be above suspicion.' Madame de Balby replied : ' I. I am 
not your wife. 2. You are not Caesar. 3. You are well aware that you are not in 
a condition to entertain or to cause any jealousy to a woman.' Louis XVIII. 
deprived her of all her pensions. He has restored them to her since the Restoration, 
but he refuses to see her, and has even forbidden her the Tuileries. . . . For a long 
time he declined to speak to the Comte Archambaud de Perigord. His Majesty said 
that he had destroyed all his happiness. The King, after the disgrace of Madame de 
Balby, took M. d'Avaray for favourite. When he lost him, he consoled himself 
promptly with M. de Blacas, who was succeeded by M. Decazes." — Journal du 
Marichal de Castellane, January 15, 1820. 




ELIE, DUC DECAZES 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY P. TOSCHI, AFTER THE PAINTING BY F. GERARD 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 131 

Tribunal of the Seine and confidential counsellor to Louis 
Bonaparte at the Hague, had, from 181 1 to the close of the 
Empire, filled the post of private secretary to Madame Mere, 
Napoleon's mother. Appointed, as the reward of his fidelity 
to the Bourbons during the Hundred Days, Prefect of Police, 
in which position he showed much firmness and tact in very 
difficult circumstances, Decazes was brought into personal 
contact with his Sovereign, upon whom his handsome face, 
insinuating manners, and powers of conversation made a most 
favourable impression. On the dismissal of Fouche, he 
entered the Cabinet as Minister of Police, and, having the art 
to persuade the old King that he was only his pupil in politics 
and that he owed all his success to him, speedily became the 
most powerful personage in France. Louis XVIII., indeed, 
regarded him as " his work," conceived for him an almost 
paternal affection, 1 loaded him with honours, and allowed 
himself to be guided almost entirely by his counsels. To the 
inspiration of Decazes was due the celebrated decree of 
September 5, 18 16, by which the reactionary " Chambre introuv- 
able" was dissolved. It was he who did most to put an end to 
the White Terror. It was he who was responsible for the 
Electoral Law of 1817, 2 the Press Law of 18 19, and other 
measures designed to reconcile the government of Louis XVIII. 
with liberal ideas. 

The moderate views of Decazes aroused the violent hostility 
of the "Ultras," who saw in the parvenu statesman only a 
dangerous revolutionary ; and his policy produced the singular 
result that the friends of the Monarchy became the enemies of 
the Ministry, and that the Ministry was supported by the 
enemies of the Monarchy. Nevertheless, for a time, it seemed 
to answer well enough, although, in March 18 19, the King was 
obliged to create a batch of new peers, in order to neutralise the 
systematic opposition of the " Ultras " in the Upper Chamber. 

But the constant success of the advanced Liberals in the 
annual elections and the boldness of their demands began to 
alarm both the King and his Minister, and the climax was 
reached when, in the elections of 1 8 19, the Abb6 Gregoire, who 
was credited with having voted for the execution of Louis XVI., 

1 In his letters the King invariably addressed the Minister as M my son." 

2 This law extended the franchise to all who paid 300 francs in direct taxes, and 
provided that; one-fifth of the Chamber of Deputies should retire every year. 



132 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and who had declared in the Convention that "kings were 
morally what monsters were physically," was returned for 
Grenoble. 

" Well, brother," observed Monsieur to the King when the 
news of Gregoire's election arrived, " you see at length whither 
they are leading you." " I know it, brother," was the reply. 
" I know it, and I shall guard against it." That same evening, 
Decazes received instructions from the King to prepare an 
alteration of the existing electoral system, and a bill was 
accordingly drafted by the latter which substituted a complete 
change in the Chamber of Deputies every seven years for a 
partial renewal each year, and divided the country into two 
electoral nations ; the plebeian nation nominating half the 
deputies in the chief towns of their respective districts, and the 
nation of the aristocracy of wealth, composed of proprietors 
paying taxes to the amount of iooo francs, nominating the 
other half in the capitals of the departments. Three members 
of the Cabinet, the Baron Louis, Minister of Finance, Gouvion 
Saint-Cyr, and Dessolles, refused to lend themselves to the 
alteration of the old law and resigned ; and a new Ministry 
was formed, of which Decazes himself was the head as President 
of the Council and Minister of the Interior. 

The proposals of the Government did not, as the King and 
Decazes had hoped, succeed in propitiating the " Ultras," who 
declined to rally to the support of the Ministry and continued 
their attacks on the favourite ; while it alienated even the most 
moderate Liberals and excited a storm of indignation among 
the deputies of the extreme Left and their supporters in the 
country. "M. Decazes," says Lamartine, "was proceeding 
blindfold to the ruin of the throne which he wished to consoli- 
date. He had made a coup d'itat on September 5 [1816] 
against the Royalists ; he was about to be compelled by the 
opposition of the Chamber to make a second against the 
Liberals. But the coup (Te'tat against the Royalists only de- 
throned a party ; that against the Liberals dethroned a public 
opinion which had become a popular passion with the mass of 
the nation." 

However, before this unfortunate measure was formally in- 
troduced, a terrible catastrophe occurred, which horrified Europe, 
plunged the nation into mourning, ruined Decazes, and com- 
pletely revolutionised the political situation. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 133 

The Due de Berry was not favourable to Decazes, and for a 
time had united with his father and Madame in fomenting 
opposition to his policy. But of late, out of respect for the King, 
he had abstained from combating the favourite and, imitating 
the prudent tactics of his wife, had assumed an attitude of 
reserve and no longer took any part in the intrigues of the 
Pavilion de Marsan. If his predilection for gallantry remained 
as pronounced as ever, in other respects the character of the 
prince had certainly changed for the better since his marriage. 
Married life seemed to have softened that irascible temper 
which had once been so sore a trial to those about him ; he 
was less impatient of contradiction, more disposed to make 
allowance for others, and more sympathetic ; while his generosity 
was boundless. It has been calculated that in six years he 
dispensed in charity close upon 1,400,000 francs, an immense 
sum for a prince whose income was much smaller than those of 
many private individuals. " All these gifts," writes Chateau- 
briand, " were accompanied by attentions which doubled their 
value. The prince and princess, following the precept of the 
Gospel, visited the unfortunate to whom they rendered assistance. 
Sometimes they mutually concealed their good works. As 
they were going out one day together, a poor woman presented 
herself before them with her children. The youngest of the 
girls artlessly ran up to the princess. ' I have taken her 
under my care/ observed the Duchesse de Berry, blushing. 
' Excellent ! ' replied the prince. • I like you to increase the 
number of our family.' " 1 

The same writer relates several pretty stories of the duke's 
goodness of heart. 

On one occasion, as he was driving through the Bois de 
Boulogne, on his way to Bagatelle,|he met a small boy stagger- 
ing beneath the weight of an enormous basket. Stopping his 
cabriolet, he called out : " Little man, where are you going ? " 
" To La Muette with this basket." " It is too heavy for you. 
Give it to me ; I will leave it as I pass." The basket was 
willingly surrendered, and the prince, after inquiring the boy's 
name and address, drove on and delivered it at its destination. 
On his return to Paris, he went to find the lad's father. " I met 
your little boy," said he, in his blunt way ; " you make him carry 
baskets that are too heavy for him ; you will injure his health 

1 Chateaubriand, la Vie et la tnort du due de Berry. 



134 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and prevent him growing. Buy him a donkey to carry his 
basket." And he gave the man money to purchase the 
donkey. 

Another time, he was walking with one of his gentlemen on 
the banks of the Seine, when he came upon an excited group of 
charcoal-burners, who were endeavouring to prevent one of 
their number from throwing himself into the river. The prince 
questioned the men, who were ignorant of his identity, and 
learned that it was the loss of four hundred francs which had 
driven their comrade to despair. Not without difficulty, he 
succeeded in persuading the poor fellow to postpone for half an 
hour any further attempt to end his life, and whispered a few 
words to the gentleman who was with him. The latter hurried 
back to the Elysee, and presently returned with twenty 
louis, which the prince handed to the would-be suicide. Great 
was the astonishment of the charcoal-burners to learn that the 
gentleman who had been talking so familiarly with them was 
the Due de Berry ! 

Unhappily in France, political passions have never taken 
much account of private virtues, and the good qualities of the 
prince, which endeared him to so many, did not save him from 
the hatred of the fanatical enemies of the Restoration, who 
recognised that it was upon him that the continuance of the 
elder branch of the Bourbons depended. 

For some time past, the Due de Berry had been haunted by 
the most sinister presentiments. He was continually receiving 
anonymous letters containing threats against his life, and 
others which, when opened, diffused so overpowering an odour 
as to give rise to the belief that they had been impregnated 
with some poison. Brave to the point of recklessness, the 
prince was at first inclined to treat these epistles with contempt, 
but the frequency of their arrival ended by producing upon him 
a very unpleasant impression. Madame de Gontaut relates 
that, one day soon after she had succeeded Madame de la 
Ferronays as dame datours to the Duchesse de Berry, her mis- 
tress, in the presence of the duke, suggested that, as the apart- 
ments which had been allotted to her were very handsome 
and spacious, 1 she ought to give some balls, which would be 

1 They were the apartments which had been occupied by the little King of Rome, 
and showed everywhere signs of the care which had been bestowed on him. The 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 135 

infinitely more amusing than the official ones which took place 
at the Elysee, since she need only invite whom she pleased, and 
all ceremony could be dispensed with. "Come," said the 
princess, " it is a promise, is it not ? You will give some 
balls ? " 

"Being very disposed to do so," continues Madame de 
Gontaut, " I was about to reply to this order, when Monseigneur 
observed sadly : ' Caroline, you think of nothing but amusing 
yourselves.' ' Eh ! why not ? ' replied she. ' I am so young.' 
And, stamping her foot, though she was smiling the while, she 
placed her pretty hand over his mouth, and said to him : 
4 Don't go and speak to me again about my being left a widow ; 
it is the current jest, but I find it insupportable.' Monseigneur 
smiled sadly : ' I am wrong,' said he, ' but it is a fixed idea of 
mine ; for some time past I have been thinking of thy widow- 
hood.' ' A singular pleasantry ' said Madame. And, taking me 
by the arm, she drew me out of the room. He followed us. 

" I ought to observe here that Monseigneur had adopted the 
habit of foreign princes, who address their wives in the second 
person singular, even in public. 

" The jest about widowhood had, for some time past, been 
often repeated, although Madame could not endure it. We 
talked about it sometimes without being able to understand it. 
M. de Nantouilles had remarked it, and feared that Monseigneur 
had received some anonymous letters. 

" Some time afterwards, Monseigneur being alone in the 
salon, called me, took me into his cabinet, and showed me an 
opened letter. ' Look,' said he, ' I am sure that this paper is 
poisoned. Don't touch it ; when I opened it, I experienced 
a horrible sensation. The letter amounts to nothing and can 
give no clue ; it is an appeal for assistance, unsigned and 
without an address.' I begged him to warn M. Decazes. I do 
not know if he did so ; but he charged me to keep the matter 
a secret, fearing to cause Madame uneasiness." 1 

An incident which occurred at the beginning of 1820 served 
to strengthen the Due de Berry's apprehensions. A glass panel 
in the grand gallery of the Elysee suddenly fell out and was 
shivered into a thousand pieces. The prince, who was decidedly 

panels were padded as high as the head of a child six or seven years old, and the 
entire suite was hung with green silk, so as to preserve the eyes. 
1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



136 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

superstitious, regarded this accident as of evil augury, and from 
that moment he appears to have been as convinced that he was 
shortly to perish by a violent death as his great ancestor Henri 
IV. is said to have been before the crime of Ravaillac. 

However, the brilliant fetes which filled the last days of the 
Carnival seemed to dissipate to some degree these gloomy fore- 
bodings, and the prince entered with all his accustomed zest 
into the gaieties of that merry season. On the night of 
Saturday, February 12, 1820, he and the duchess attended a 
magnificent costume-ball given in their honour by Comte 
Greffulhe, the banker. One of the features of this entertain- 
ment was the distribution to the ladies of little knives, in 
allusion to an opera, les Petites Danaides, which was just then 
drawing all Paris to the Porte Saint-Martin. 1 The ladies laughed 
gaily as the knives were handed round. Twenty-four hours 
later, they recalled the incident with a shudder ! 

Although, since the last ball at the Elysee, dancing was 
once more a prohibited pleasure for the Duchesse de Berry — for, 
to the great joy of her husband, signs of her again being in an 
interesting condition had begun to manifest themselves — she 
and the duke remained until a very late hour and appeared 
to have enjoyed themselves thoroughly. The duke, however, 
must have been not a little surprised by the conduct of his 
host, who had followed him about assiduously the whole evening, 
with a countenance more in keeping with a funeral than a fete. 
The worthy banker, in point of fact, had been suffering torments 
of anxiety on the prince's account, from the moment that the 
latter entered the ball-room until he saw him step into his 
carriage to return to the Elysee ; and his ball, which had given 
so much pleasure to all his guests, had been for him nothing 
but one long purgatory. " He had received that morning," 
writes the Comte de Rochechouart, " a note warning him that 
the prince would be assassinated during the fete. We can 
understand the anguish of the master of the house, not daring 
to warn his august guest or to leave him any more than his 
shadow, and obliged to watch the movements of every person 
who approached him. Alas ! the crime was only postponed." 2 

In the forenoon of that same Saturday, the Due de Berry 
had gone shooting in the Bois de Boulogne. Everything, 

1 Nettement, Memoires sur Madame, la dtichesse de Berri. 
- Souvenirs du Comte de Rochechouart. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 137 

however, had gone wrong ; a crowd of curious people who fol- 
lowed to witness the sport disturbed the game and distracted the 
dogs. The huntsman lost his head ; the duke his temper, and 
when one of the assistant huntsmen, named Soubriard, happened 
to approach his Royal Highness at a particularly irritating 
moment, the prince vented his ill-humour upon him, blamed 
him very unjustly for all the mishaps of the day, and abused 
him roundly. 

As usual, he quickly repented of his violence, and returned 
to the Elysee looking so melancholy that, when he went to pay 
his afternoon visit to his little daughter, Madame de Gontaut 
remarked upon it. " Pity me," said he, with touching frankness, 
" I have just wounded the heart of a man, whom I love and 
who would give his life for me. I have behaved very badly, 
very wickedly ! " At that moment, he took hold of the little 
princess, who was in Madame de Gontaut's arms, to give her a 
kiss. The child was frightened and began to cry. "She is 
right," said he, " to be afraid of a wicked man." Madame de 
Gontaut thought it incumbent upon her to refuse to believe 
that he could have left his unfortunate servant without any 
attempt to make amends for his injustice. " No," said he, "you 
have placed your finger on the wound. Poor, poor Soubriard ! 
I have left him sad and unhappy." Then he pressed her hand, 
and added : " But I shall not forget him ; the day is not yet 
over." 

"The next morning, Shrove-Sunday, February 13," continues 
Madame de Gontaut, "the Due de Berry came to visit his child 
before attending the King's Mass. He embraced her warmly, 
and, at the moment of taking his departure, observed to me : 
' Don't scold me any more. On leaving you yesterday, I signed 
an order which will, I hope, secure Soubriard's happiness for 
the rest of his life. I am entrusting the service of my daughter 
to him ; he is to be her huntsman.' Then, although in haste to 
be gone, he stopped to tell me in confidence that he was certain 
that, in a few months, Madame would contribute to his happi- 
ness that of another child. ' I have reasons,' he repeated, ' which 
do not permit of any further doubt about it.' Then he gave me 
his hand and said ' Au revoir ! ' so joyously that the tears came 
into my eyes, so much was I affected at the sight of the happi- 
ness which the news which he had just imparted to me afforded 
him. Poor prince ! Little did he think that it would become 



138 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the sole consolation which my heart was to experience on that 
fatal day ! " l 

The 13th of the month was a sinister date in the life of the 
Duchesse de Berry. It was on July 13, 18 17 that she had 
given birth to a daughter, who lived but a day ; and it was on 
September 13 in the following year that she had brought into 
the world a son, who died at the end of two hours. The young 
princess, however, was not superstitious, and no premonition of 
the terrible tragedy with which the day was to close was 
permitted to cloud her happiness. At ten o'clock, she repaired 
to the Tuileries, where she held her usual Sunday " drawing- 
room " and gave several private audiences. Then she returned 
to the Elysde and spent the afternoon in Mademoiselle's apart- 
ments, playing with the child and discussing the ball of the 
previous evening with Madame de Gontaut ; and at a quarter 
to six she and the duke drove to the Tuileries to dine with the 
King and the other members of the Royal Family. 

Two splendid balls were to be given that evening ; one by 
Marechal Suchet, Due d'Albufera, in his magnificent hotel in 
the Rue Faubourg Saint-Honore ; the other — a masquerade — 
by Madame de la Briche, in the Rue de la Ville l'Eveque. The 
Due and Duchesse de Berry had originally intended to be 
present at both these functions ; but, as the duchess had 
remained up very late the previous night, her husband did not 
think it advisable for her to undergo further fatigue in the 
delicate state she was then in ; and they accordingly decided to 
spend the evening at the Opera, where there was to be an 
extraordinary representation, in place of the usual Monday 
performance, as on that day the salle would be required for a 
masked-ball. 

The Opera-house was at this period in the Rue de Richelieu, 
opposite the Bibliotheque Royale, and occupied the site of 
what is now the Place Louvois. It had five tiers of boxes, 
including those on the rez-de-chaussce, and accommodation for 
over sixteen hundred spectators. Its exterior was far from 
imposing ; but the interior was considered a masterpiece of 
elegance. A side-entrance in the Rue Rameau was reserved 
for the use of the princes. 

The programme, which was an unusually long one, consisted of 
three pieces : le Carnaval de Venise, le Rossignol, and les Noces de 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 139 

Gamache. About eight o'clock, the Due and Duchesse de Berry 
entered their box, which was tastefully upholstered in blue silk 
and situated on the rez-de-chaussee, immediately below that of 
the King. The first piece was already over when they arrived, 
and the curtain was just rising on le Rossignol. The house was 
filled by a large and fashionable audience, and every box on the 
five tiers contained its complement of elegantly-dressed women 
covered with jewels and their attendant cavaliers. The Due 
and Duchesse d'Orleans, with the duke's sister, Madame Adelaide, 
and their children, were in a box near the prince and princess ; 
and the two families, who were on the friendliest terms, saluted 
each other with smiles of recognition. Within the theatre that 
night all was life and gaiety. 

But outside, in the Rue Rameau, Death waited ! 



CHAPTER XI 

Louvel — His early life — His violent animosity against the Bourbons, whom he 
resolves " to exterminate " — He determines to commence operations with the assassina- 
tion of the Due de Berry, but his courage repeatedly fails him — His conduct on the night 
of February 13, 1820 — -The Due and Duchesse de Berry at the Opera — The princess, 
having met with a slight accident, decides to return to the Elysee before the end of 
the performance — The duke conducts his wife to her carriage, and is stabbed by 
Louvel as he turns to re-enter the Opera-house — Pursuit and capture of the assassin 
— The wounded prince is carried into the salon behind his box — Courage and 
presence of mind of the Duchesse de Berry — An extraordinary scene — The Due de 
Berry and the Bishop of Amyclee — Arrival of Monsieur and the Due and Duchesse 
d'Angouleme — A futile operation — Administration of the last Sacraments — Madame 
de Gontaut brings Mademoiselle to the Opera-house — The Duchesse de Berry, at her 
husband's request, sends for the duke's daughters by Amy Brown — Arrival of 
Louis XVIII. — "Sire, grdce grdce, pour la vie de I'/iommeJ" — The last moments 
— Death of the Due de Berry. 

DEATH waited in the shape of " a little, slender man, 
wasted by internal consumption, of a bilious com- 
plexion, pallid and wan, in a constant state of excite- 
ment, with a hard glance, compressed lips, and a suspicious 
face ; an image of fanaticism revolving in a narrow brain some 
ill-comprehended idea, and suffering, until his fatal hand should 
have relieved him, by a crime, from its weight and its martyrdom." 1 
Louis Pierre Louvel was his name ; he was a saddler by trade, 
and was at this time in his thirty-seventh year, having been 
born at Versailles on October 7, 1783. 

Louvel's parents had been small tradesmen at Versailles, but 
they had both died when he was very young, and the boy had 
been placed by an elder sister in one of those State institutes 
which had been established by the Convention to. train the 
children of the country in republican ideas. The teaching he 
there received left a profound impression upon his mind, and he 
went forth into the world a fanatical devotee of the Revolution 
and a patriot of the most violent type. 

1 Lamartine, Histoire de la Restauration. 
140 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 141 

The glamour of Napoleon's victories, however, served to 
temper his revolutionary ardour, or rather to transform it into 
an equally passionate enthusiasm for the Emperor, who personi- 
fied for him the greatness and glory of France ; and, after 
serving his apprenticeship to a saddler at Monfort l'Amaury 
and plying his trade for a while, he entered, in 1806, a regiment 
of artillery, in which, however, his delicate health did not permit 
him to remain more than six months. He then returned to his 
trade, at which he bore the character of being a sober, industrious, 
and capable workman, but very taciturn and unsociable, and 
was living at Metz at the time of the fall of the Empire. 

The sight of the invasion of 1814, and of the Royal Family 
returning under the protection of the enemies of his country, 
aroused in his already disordered mind the most violent 
exasperation, and from that moment the "extermination of the 
Bourbons " became with him a veritable monomania. Obsessed 
by this idea, he walked all the way from Metz to Calais, with 
the intention of assassinating Louis XVIII., at the moment of 
his landing upon French soil. But, either because no opportu- 
nity presented itself, or, more probably, because his resolution 
failed him, he made no attempt to execute his design. Leaving 
Calais, he proceeded to Fontainebleau, where he remained three 
months, and thence, by way of Marseilles, Bastia, and Leghorn, 
to the Isle of Elba. The chief saddler of the Imperial stables 
gave him employment; but at the end of the year 18 14 
Napoleon found himself obliged to curtail the expenses of his 
household, and Louvel was dismissed. He then returned to 
Leghorn, and from there to Chambery, and it was while he was 
in the ancient capital of the Dukes of Savoy that he learned of 
Napoleon's landing. Without a word, he quitted his employer 
and hurried off to Lyons to rejoin the Emperor, in whose 
service he remained up to Waterloo. 

After the Second Restoration, Louvel's animosity against 
the Bourbons became more violent than in 18 14, and he was 
more than ever determined that his should be the hand to 
avenge the humiliation of his country. At the same time, he 
was cunning enough to dissimulate his feelings towards the 
Royal Family from all with whom he came in contact, and, as 
he himself subsequently declared, "so far from sharing his 
secret with any one, he did not even once suffer himself to speak 
against the Bourbons." 



142 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

In order to facilitate his design, he obtained employment as 
a saddler in the royal stables at Versailles, and frequently 
followed the Court hunting-parties, always carrying a poniard 
about him. After long hesitation, he had decided to begin with 
the Due de Berry, " because he was the stock of the family," 
after him to kill the Due d'Angouleme, then Monsieur, and 
finally the King. For four years he lurked about the theatres, 
when he believed that his destined victim intended to be present, 
and followed him to the chase, the public promenades, and the 
churches. During this period, he was afforded several oppor- 
tunities of executing his project ; but, when the crucial moment 
arrived, his courage invariably failed him. 

One day, he had lain in wait for the Due de Berry in the 
Bois de Boulogne, with the fullest intention of assassinating 
him. " I trembled with rage," he says, " when I thought of the 
Bourbons. I had witnessed them returning with the foreigner, 
and I was horrified by it. Then my thoughts took a different 
turn ; I believed myself unjust towards them, and reproached 
myself with my designs ; but my anger immediately returned. 
For more than an hour I remained in a condition of uncertainty, 
and had not yet come to a decision when the prince passed by 
and was saved for that day." 

On the evening of February 13, 1820, Louvel was loitering 
outside the Opera-house at the hour fixed for the beginning of 
the performance, as he had done on many previous occasions, 
when he had reason to believe that the Due de Berry would be 
there. Two or three days before, he had sought to fortify him- 
self by a visit to Pere Lachaise to contemplate the graves of 
Lannes, Massena, and other heroes of the Empire ; but, despite 
the inspiration which he appears to have derived from this 
pilgrimage, the arrival of the prince found him still irresolute. 
But let us listen to his own account of that fatal evening, 
given on the morrow at his examination by the Prefect of 
Police : — 

" I arrived at Dubois's cabaret at a few minutes after five, 
and dined there, as I have already explained. ... At about 
half-past six, I left the cabaret, and went up to my room, where I 
armed myself with my second dagger, with the intention of 
going, as had been my almost daily custom for a long time past, 
to loiter about the theatre which I thought it most probable 
that the prince would visit. The prince and princess arrived 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 143 

about eight o'clock. When the prince alighted from his 
carriage to enter the theatre, my courage failed me, as had been 
the case on many occasions. The order was given in a loud 
voice to the coachman to return at a quarter to eleven. I made 
a careful note of the time, and then went away. I went down 
to the Palais-Royal, where the first inspiration which came to 
me was to go to bed. I turned my steps homewards with that 
intention, but, recollecting that towards the end of the month I 
must return to the workshops at Versailles, which would render 
it difficult for me to realise my project, I felt myself again 
assailed by the ideas which for such a long time past had 
unceasingly occupied my thoughts, and I decided to persevere 
in my designs. I walked about the Palais-Royal for some time, 
and then returned to the Opera-house, where I saw the carriages 
again standing at the entrance leading to the Due de Berry's 
box. I approached them. . . ." 

Meanwhile, the Due and Duchesse de Berry, little imagining 
that they were only separated by a wall from the man who was 
numbering the minutes of the prince's existence, were greatly 
enjoying the evening. During the second entr'acte, they paid 
a visit to their cousins' box, and the duke, who was devoted to 
children, began playing with the little Due de Chartres, who 
was doomed like himself to be cut off in the flower of his age. 
He seemed full of gaiety and good-humour, and the audience, 
pleased by the sight of this family gathering, applauded him 
several times. 

When the curtain rose on the first act of les Noces de 
Gamache, the prince and princess took leave of the Orleans to 
return to their places. As they were passing along the corridor, 
the Duchesse de Berry was struck with some force by the door 
of a box, which was suddenly thrown violently open ; and, as she 
already seemed rather tired, her husband advised her to return 
to the Elysee. She declined, saying that she wished to stay 
for the ballet, but during the next entr'acte she exercised the 
privilege of her sex and announced that she had changed her 
mind. 

The duke accordingly gave his wife his arm to escort her to 
her carriage, after which he intended to return to his box to 
witness the ballet, in which, by the way, Virginie Oreille was to 
take part. Followed by the Comte de Mesnard, the princess's 



144 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

first equerry, Madame de Bethisy, her dame pour accompagner on 
duty that evening, and the Comtes de Clermont-Lodeve and 
C6sar de Choiseul, the aides-de-camp in attendance on the 
prince, they descended the private staircase and reached the 
entrance leading into the Rue Rameau. 

The princess's carriage was at the door. A little way behind 
it was a cabriolet, opposite which, in the shadow of the Opera- 
house wall, stood a man wearing a green redingote. He appeared 
to be an inoffensive spectator, or a servant who was waiting 
for his master, and attracted nobody's attention. 

This man was Louvel ! 

The Due de Berry gave his right hand to the duchess to 
assist her into the carriage ; the Comte de Mesnard, his left ; 
Madame de Bethisy followed her mistress. The duke, who was 
wearing neither hat nor cloak, remained standing for a moment 
beneath the portico, and, waving his hand to his wife, cried 
gaily : " Adieu, Caroline ; we shall see each other again soon." 
The footman folded up the steps of the carriage, and the prince 
turned to re-enter the theatre. 

At that instant, Louvel sprang forward, "passed like a 
bullet between the carriage and the sentry," x who was in the 
act of presenting arms, seized the prince by the left shoulder 
with his left hand, and with the other drove his dagger deep into 
his right breast. 

For a moment, as generally happens, the victim felt only the 
shock, and not the wound, and, imagining that he had received a 
blow from the shoulder, exclaimed : " Voila un fameux brutal ! " 
while the Comte C6sar de Choiseul, believing also that the man 
had accidently collided with the prince, while running, caught 
hold of his coat, 2 saying angrily : " Take care what you are 
doing ! " 

Freeing himself from the count's grasp, the assassin fled in 
the direction of the Rue de Richelieu, leaving the weapon in the 
wound ; and the duke, putting his hand to the place where he 
had been struck, felt the hilt of the poniard. " I am assassi- 
nated ! " he cried. " I have got the dagger ! " And he 
plucked out the reeking weapon and handed it to the Comte de 

1 Deposition du comte de Choiseul, March 6, 1820, in Charles Nauroy, les Demiers 
Bourbons : le Due de Berry et Louvel. 

2 Most writers state that he pushed Louvel away, but Choiseul, in the evidence 
which he gave on March 6, deposed that he caught him by the coat. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 145 

Mesnard, 1 into whose arms he then sank, murmuring : "lama 
dead man ! " 

The Duchesse de Berry, whose carnage had not yet started, 
heard her husband's cry of anguish, and immediately threw 
herself upon the door, which the footman had just closed, and 
endeavoured to open it. Madame de Bethisy, a strong young 
woman, seized her round the body with both arms, to prevent 
her, fearing that there might be more assassins about, or even 
an insurrection, and that her mistress might also be struck 
down. 2 But the little princess, struggling and screaming : " Let 
me alone ; I order you to let me alone ! " insisted on the door 
being opened, and, wrenching herself free from Madame de 
Bethisy, sprang out of the carriage, without waiting for the steps 
to be let down, fell at her husband's feet, and threw her arms 
round him. The wounded man was carried into the vestibule 
and placed upon a bench, with his head leaning against the wall. 
They took off his cravat and opened his shirt to look for the 
wound, which they found below the right breast. The blood 
spurted forth, and the gowns of the princess and Madame de 
Bethisy were covered with it. " I am dying," said the duke in a 
faint voice ; " send for a priest ; come, my wife, let me die in 
your arms ! " Then he lost consciousness. 

Meanwhile, the Comtes de Choiseul and de Clermont-Lodeve, 
the sentry, whose name was Desbies, and a footman had 
started in pursuit of the assassin. Hearing the cries of the 
princess, however, Choiseul turned back and, on learning of the 
serious condition of the duke, ran to a neighbouring cafe to 
inquire the address of the nearest surgeon. 3 The others 
continued the chase, in which several other persons, attracted by 
their shouts, also joined. Louvel, however, was fleet of foot and 
had secured a considerable start, and he was still some distance 
ahead of his pursuers, when, at the corner of the Arcade 
Colbert, he was stopped by a waiter employed at the Cafe 
Hardy, named Paulmier, 4 who seized him by the collar, over- 

1 The dagger is described by one of the surgeons who attended the ill-fated 
prince as " formed of a blade clumsily made and of a hilt more clumsy still. The 
blade, which was six inches in length, was flat, very fine at the point, and sharpened 
on both sides. It thickened insensibly towards the hilt." — Deposition da docteur 
Dupuytren. 

2 "Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry." 

3 Deposition dn comte de Choiseul. 

* Imbert de Saint-Armand and M. de Reiset say that Paulmier was carrying a 
L 



146 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

powered him, and handed him over to the sentry Desbies, who 
was the first to come up. 

The assassin was conducted to the guard-house of the Opera, 
where Clermont-Lodeve had great difficulty in preventing the 
infuriated soldiers from promptly running him through with 
their bayonets. " Monster ! " said the count, addressing Louvel, 
" what could have induced you to commit such a crime ? " 
" They are the most cruel enemies of France," was the reply. 
Clermont was for a moment under the impression that the man 
was about to make a confession, but he soon understood that 
the words were an allusion to the Bourbons. 1 Louvel was then 
searched, when a second dagger and the sheath of the one with 
which he had stabbed the prince were found upon him. Clermont 
took charge of these evidences of the crime, and hastened to the 
side of his injured master. 

During this time, advantage had been taken of the Due de 
Berry's swoon to carry him out of the vestibule and up the 
private staircase into the salon behind his box. It was a little 
low-ceilinged room, with green hangings. Two play-bills upon 
the wall formed its only decoration. 2 They laid the prince 
upon a sofa, the duchess supported his head, and Roullet, the 
librarian of the Opera, brought vinegar and began to bathe his 
temples. Three doctors were speedily in attendance : Lacroix, 
Drogard, and Blancheton. The last, who resided close to the 
Opera-house, had been fetched by the Comte de Choiseul. 
They probed the wound and bled the prince in the right arm, 
in order to prevent the obstruction of the lungs. The wounded 
man recovered consciousness, and murmured some indistinct 
words, which were understood to be a request for a priest. 
His sight was growing dim from failing strength, occasioned 
by the loss of blood, and he seemed unable to distinguish those 

tray of ices to the Opera-house, that Louvel collided with him and upset the tray, and 
that, furious at this mishap, the waiter ran after him and caught him. But Paulmier, 
in the evidence which he gave on the morrow before the Commissary of Police Ferte, 
did not mention this incident, and merely stated that "seeing a man in a green 
redingote running, pursued by gendarmes with cries of ' Stop him ! Stop him ! ' he 
seized him by the collar." 

1 Nettement, Memoires sur Madame, la duchesse de Berri. 

2 It was in this little room that the prince had been accustomed to give audience 
to any nymph of the Opera upon whom he happened to have cast a favourable eye, 
and Mary Berry declares that, on recovering his senses, he is said to have exclaimed : 
" Ah I e'est un jugement du ciel que cette ckambre!" But some of Miss Berry's 
French friends appear to have had very lively imaginations. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 147 

about him. " Caroline, are you there ? " he exclaimed, stretch- 
ing out his arms for his wife. "Yes," replied the princess, 
tenderly ; " I am here and shall never leave thee." l 

Choiseul bears witness to the courage and presence of mind 
exhibited by the Duchesse de Berry on this terrible night. 
" Every one," he says, " was extremely agitated ; the princess 
alone had not lost her head, and showed the most admirable 
energy, full of sensibility and strength of mind." When the 
surgeons wished to make a ligature and demanded a bandage, 
which no one had had the sense to prepare, she snatched off 
her garters, and when these were found to be useless, owing 
to their being made of elastic, gave them her sash. 2 

Clermont informed the duke of the arrest of the assassin. 
" Is he a foreigner ? " he asked ; and, on being told that he was 
not, exclaimed : " It is very cruel to die by the hand of a 
Frenchman ! " He inquired of Blancheton if his wound were 
mortal, adding : " I have plenty of courage ; I can endure 
anything, and I beg you to tell me the truth." The surgeon, 
however, did not venture to express an opinion. 

The Due d'Orleans was fetched, and, on learning of the 
serious condition of the prince, sent round for the duchess and 
his sister, desiring the children to be taken home. But 
" apprehensive of a tumult, which might cause numerous acci- 
dents, by accumulating frightened crowds at the doors, it was 
thought advisable not to apprise the public of the murder or 
to interrupt the performance " ; 3 the ballet still went on, and 
from the room where the prince lay in agony people could 
hear the music and the applause, and, through a window which 
opened into the box, catch glimpses of the groups of gaily-clad 
danseuses moving gracefully about the stage. Truly, a gruesome 
contrast between death and pleasure ! 4 

1 Madame de Gontaut, Mimoires. 

2 Deposition du comte de Choiseul. 

3 Lamartine, Histoire de la Restauration. 

4 " It is to be remembered, in addition to the horror of the scene, that, as the 
audience in the theatre knew nothing of the accident, the last act of the ballet 
was going on, and that every time the door opened of the room where the Due de 
Berry lay (which must have been almost every instant), the applause of the pit and 
the steps of the dancers struck the ears of the spectators of the horrors within. The 
effect was so terrible that Mile. d'Orleans, less occupied than the rest with any 
services to the poor victim, fainted away, from the mere incongruous horror of the 
scene, on which she had a sort of leisure to look." — " Journal and Correspondence of 
Miss Berry." 



148 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

The duke repeatedly asked for a priest, and presently 
Clermont-Lodeve, who had hurried off in search of one, re- 
turned, bringing with him the prince's chief almoner, Mgr. de 
Latil, Bishop of Amyclee. This prelate was a great favourite 
with Monsieur, but the Due de Berry had long felt for him a 
profound aversion, which, according to Madame de Gontaut, 
he was never able to explain. On perceiving him enter, he 
was unable to restrain a gesture of annoyance ; but, a moment 
later, observed to Clermont-Lodeve : " God is giving me a trial 
for which I render Him thanks ; I must make painful avowals 
to him, and receive from him hope and consolation." He then 
motioned the bishop to approach, and they conferred together, 
in low tones, for some minutes. From that moment the agitation 
of the prince appeared to subside. 1 

The outward flow of blood had now ceased, but the doctors 
feared the internal hemorrhage, and, in order to diminish the 
danger of this, it was decided to bleed the prince in the other 
arm. As this failed to afford him any relief, leeches were 
applied, and then the duke's own surgeon, Bougon, who had 
just arrived, proposed suction. "The prince, moved by so 
noble a devotion, wished to dissuade Dr. Bougon, saying 
to him : ' What are you doing, my friend ? The wound is 
perhaps poisoned.' Devotion, however, knows no danger ; 
and that of Dr. Bougon could not be hindered by such a 
fear." 2 

A little after midnight, Monsieur arrived. On learning the 
terrible news, the prince had rushed, half-dressed, from his 
apartments, sprung into the carriage of the Prince Charles 
de Polignac, which was waiting for that nobleman near 
the Pavilion de Marsan, and ordered the coachman to drive 
him at full speed to the Tuileries. So great was his haste 
that he shut the door without waiting for the Due de 
Maill6, who accompanied him, to take his place by his side, 
and the duke had to clamber up behind and ride with the 
footmen. 

Monsieur was closely followed by the Due and Duchesse 
d' Angouleme. The grief of the former, who was deeply attached 
to his brother, was heartrending ; weeping bitterly, he- flung 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mhnoires. 

2 Deposition du docteur Dupuytren, in Nauroy, les Demiers Bourbons : le Due de 
Berry et Louvel. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 149 

himself on his knees beside him, and " bathed the wound with 
his tears." l 

After the successive remedies of which we have spoken, the 
Due de Berry appeared to breathe with less difficulty and, on 
the advice of the doctors, of whom there were now six present, 
advantage was taken of this trifling improvement to remove 
him from the little salon, where both air and space were 
wanting, into an adjoining room, which was used by the 
administration of the Opera. A truckle-bed was brought in, 
and on this the prince was laid, a chair being placed under 
one end of the mattress to raise his head, as no bolster was 
forthcoming. 

By this time the news of the tragedy had spread, and the 
foyer and corridors of the Opera-house were filled by an excited 
crowd of people connected with the Court, some of whom had 
come straight from Madame de la Briche's masquerade and 
were still in fancy dress, their pale and tear-stained faces con- 
trasting oddly with the gay and occasionally ludicrous costumes 
which they were wearing. Every one who came out of the 
room where the prince lay was besieged for news, and all kinds 
of contradictory rumours were in circulation. 

Although the surgeons refused to abandon hope, the Due 
de Berry himself was under no illusion. " My wound," said he 
to Blancheton, " is a mortal one ; the dagger was driven in up 
to the hilt ; it has penetrated to the heart ! " 

A few minutes later, Dupuytren, at this time the most 
celebrated surgeon in Paris, arrived with the Due de Maille, 
who had been sent to find him. Much had been expected from 
his coming, and, after a consultation with his colleagues, he 
decided that an incision should be made in the prince's chest, 
following the course of the wound. The object of this, he tells 
us, was to ascertain if the internal hemorrhage proceeded from 
an intercostal artery. In that case, they would have been able 
to check it ; while, in the contrary event, the operation would 
at any rate serve to draw off some of the blood which was 
flooding the unfortunate man's chest and threatening to suffocate 
him. 

"The necessity of operating," continues Dupuytren, "was 
communicated to the prince, who bravely consented to it. It 

1 Souvenirs du lieutenant-general Vicomte de Reiset,par son petit-fih le Vicomte de 
Reiset. 



150 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

was thought advisable to spare his young wife the sight of a 
new anguish, and we begged her to withdraw for a moment. 
Monsieur and the prince joined their entreaties to ours to 
persuade her to do so. 1 All was useless, for she was unwilling 
to leave the duke at a moment when he might be in need of 
consolation. ' I will be brave ! ' cried she, throwing herself on 
her knees by the bedside and flinging her arms around the 
Due de Berry. At that moment, her features, her voice, her 
gestures, seemed animated by a divine fire ; a great woman 
appeared all at once to have taken the place of the young and 
timid princess. We were compelled to yield. 

" This operation could not be carried out without occasioning 
pain, and this pain drew from the prince some cries and caused 
him to make some involuntary movements. Then the princess, 
restraining her husband's hand, which was about to seize the 
instrument, cried in an accent which it was impossible to resist : 
' Charles, Charles, it is to relieve you ; if you love me, you will 
allow it to be done ! ' And the prince permitted the operation 
to be finished." 2 

The operation afforded the Due de Berry momentary relief, 
and his breathing became somewhat easier ; but it showed that 
the cause of the internal hemorrhage was not a lesion in the 
intercostal arteries, but a deeper and more dangerous one. In 
point of fact, as the autopsy presently revealed, the dagger, 
entering between the fifth and sixth ribs, and traversing the 
upper part of the right lung, had penetrated the pericardium. 

The despairing surgeons, who had just been reinforced by 
three new arrivals, bringing their number up to ten, held a 
further consultation, and decided that the only thing to be done 
was to turn the duke over on his right side, so as to promote 
the outflow of blood, and " to observe with attention the 
symptoms of the malady." They then drew up a bulletin, in 
which they stated that the Due de Berry was in the gravest 
danger, and that they entertained scarcely any hope of saving 
him. This they gave to Decazes, for transmission to the King. 3 

The Due de Berry, feeling that he was sinking, desired to 
receive the Last Sacraments, and called the Bishop of Amycl^e. 

1 It was at this moment, and not, as some writers state, just before he expired, 
that the duke said to his wife : ' ' Caroline, spare yourself, for the sake of the child 
you bear." 

2 Deposition dn docteur Dttpuytren. 

3 Ibid. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 151 

The prelate approached and, kneeling at the bedside, heard the 
prince's confession and gave him absolution, after which Extreme 
Unction was administered by the cure of Saint-Roch. The 
prince then again asked for the bishop, and begged him to con- 
tinue his exhortations. " Ah ! " said he to the Due d'Angouleme, 
" I am very culpable ; will Heaven pardon me ? " " Yes, 
brother," was the reply, " your sufferings and your sentiments 
at this moment would suffice to obtain from Heaven the mercy 
you implore." * 

Reassured by the Sacraments and the words of his brother, 
the dying man expressed a wish to bid farewell to his little 
daughter, and the Duchesse de Berry sent orders to Madame de 
Gontaut to bring her charge to the Opera-house. 2 Madame de 
Gontaut, with the sleeping Mademoiselle in her arms, entered a 
carriage, in the presence of an immense crowd, which had flocked 
to the Tuileries in the belief that the duke would be brought 
thither, and which testified its sympathy by maintaining "an 
almost religious silence." In the Faubourg Saint-Honore her 
carriage was stopped by a block in the traffic, caused by the 
crowd of carriages going and returning from Marechal Suchet's 
ball, and she trembled lest the delay might deprive the infant 
princess of her father's dying benediction. However, way was 
at length made for her. 

On reaching the Opera-house, Madame de Gontaut at once 
carried the little girl to the sick-room. " Madame came to me, 
took her child, and presented her to Monseigneur. He made an 
effort to embrace her. ' Poor child ! ' said he ; ' may you be 
less unhappy than your father ! ' 3 He stretched out his arms 
and sought to bless her. Madame gave her back to me. She 
was asleep ; and I placed her behind the pillow on which Mon- 
seigneur's head was reposing." 4 

1 Dupuytren. Lamartine, who was doubtless well informed, says that the Due 
d'Angouleme's answer was : " Oh ! my dear brother, what further pledge of mercy do 
you require ? He has made you a martyr." 

2 The Vicomte de Reiset, in the Souvenirs of his grandfather, places the arrival 
of Mademoiselle a few minutes before that of Dupuytren ; but Dupuytren himself 
states that she was not sent for until after the last Sacraments had been administered 
to the Due de Berry, that is to say, after all hope had been abandoned. As the 
surgeon gave his evidence with the events of that terrible night fresh in his mind, we 
see no reason to doubt his accuracy. 

3 But most historians say that the duke's words were: " May you be less unhappy 
than all those of my family ! " 

4 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



152 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

The Due de Berry then turned to the duchess and said : 
" Wife, I ought to confess to you that I had two children before 
I knew you. Permit me to see them." " Let them be brought," 
replied the princess, without a moment's hesitation. " Why did 
you not tell me of this before, Charles ? I would have adopted 
them." * And she called the Due de Coigny and requested him 
to fetch the children. 

Coigny at once drove to the Rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, 
where Amy Brown and her children were now residing. At 
that hour of the night, or rather morning, all the household 
were asleep, and the duke had the greatest difficulty in procur- 
ing admission. He told the servant not to disturb her mistress, 
as he only wanted the two children and their maid, who must 
instantly accompany him ; but he was informed that the elder 
girl slept with her mother, so that concealment was impossible ; 
and he had to break the terrible news as gently as he could to 
Amy Brown. 

" On M. de Coigny," writes Mary Berry, " being obliged to 
tell her that she must allow her children to go without her, that 
she could not be admitted, she made no reply, but gently pressed 
his arm in silence, put on a large bonnet with a deep veil, and 
placed herself in the coach with the children, their maid, and M. 
de Coigny. On his again repeating that she could notbe allowed 
to go in, she again, without uttering a word, squeezed his arm, as 
if to assure him of the propriety of her conduct, and actually 
remained in the carriage at the door of the Opera-house, while 
the children, accompanied by their maid, were carried up to 
their dying father." 2 

Nearly three-quarters of an hour elapsed before Coigny 
returned with the little girls, during which time the Due de 
Berry more than once expressed his fear that they would arrive 
too late. On being brought into the room, the children, who 
were both dressed alike in little redingotes of yellow cashmere 
and hats with white ribbons, hastened to their father, knelt 

1 Souvenirs du lieutenant-general Vicomte de Reiset, par soji petit-fils le Vicomte de 
Reiset. Dupuytren gives a different version of this conversation, from which it would 
appear that the Duchesse de Berry was already aware of the children's existence : 
" ' My dear Caroline, I have a very earnest desire. Will you be so kind as to 
acquiesce ? ' ' Speak, what is it you wish ? ' 'I should like to see my little 
Charlotte and Louise. Do you consent ? ' < Yes, to everything that will please you. 
I will go and give orders for them to be fetched.' " 

s "Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry." 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 153 

down at the foot of the bed, and kissed the hand which he 
extended to them. The prince 'spoke a few words to them, in 
English, in a low tone, gave them his blessing, and embraced 
them, saying to the younger in French. " Poor Louise ! Thou 
wilt never see thy unhappy father again ! " Then, calling the 
Duchesse de Berry, who, during this touching interview, had 
moved a few steps away, he pointed to the kneeling children, 
and, raising his voice, said : " Wife, here are two orphans ; I beg 
you to take care of them." The princess replied by holding out 
her arms to the children, who rose and went to her. She kissed 
them affectionately and said : " Yes, my dear little ones ; I will 
take care of you ; I will behave as a mother towards you ; you 
shall never have a better one than I." Then, taking them by 
the hand, she led them to the little Mademoiselle, who was in her 
nurse's arms. " Embrace your sister," said she, simply. And, 
turning towards her husband, she exclaimed : " You see, Charles ; 
I have now three children ! " l 

The prince, who, even in the midst of his cruel sufferings, 
showed thought for others, had refrained from wounding the 
feelings of his wife by speaking of the son, whom he had by 
Virginie Oreille, since he was the fruit of a post-marital attach- 
ment ; but he now summoned his brother to his side, and 
recommended the boy to his protection. The Due d'Angouleme 
readily gave the required promise, and, as we have mentioned 
elsewhere, both he and the duchess subsequently took a great 
interest in Charles de Carriere. 

The poor prince had, however, one last anxiety ; it was to 
obtain the King's clemency for Louvel. " A score of times in 
the course of that fatal night," says Dupuytren, " he exclaimed : 
' Have I not injured this man ? Had he not some personal 
wrong to avenge upon me ? ' In vain Monsieur repeated to him, 
with tears in his eyes : ' No, my son, you have never seen, you 
have never injured, this man ; he had no personal animosity 
against you.' The prince reverted incessantly to this impor- 
tunate idea, to which he joined another : that of obtaining mercy 
for the assassin." His eagerness for the arrival of the King, 
which increased as he felt his end drawing nearer, was pitiable. 
" Ah ! the King will not come ! " he cried. " I shall be unable 
to demand of him the life of the man ! " And then, addressing, 

1 Deposition du docteur Dupuytren ; Souvenirs du lieutenant-general vicomte de 
Reiset. 



154 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

in turn, Monsieur and the Due d'Angouleme, he cried : "Promise 
me, father, to implore the King to spare the man's life ! " 

Louis XVIIL, who usually retired to rest at an early hour, 
was in bed and asleep when Decazes came to the Tuileries to 
inform him of the crime of which his nephew had just been the 
victim. Acting in accordance with the instructions of the 
Comte d'Artois, who wished to spare his brother as much as 
possible, and feared that Louvel's crime was only part of a 
formidable conspiracy, and that an attempt might be made 
upon the King himself, the Minister concealed from him the 
gravity of the prince's condition ; and, though his Majesty 
wished to start at once for the Opera, persuaded him to defer 
his departure, saying that Monsieur would send him warning if 
the situation became worse. However, the first bulletin, the 
contents of which Decazes had not dared to communicate to 
his master, was followed by others so alarming that at length it 
was no longer possible to dissimulate the danger ; and, the 
precaution having been taken to line the road from the Tuileries 
with troops, the King entered his carriage and set off for the 
Opera. 

It was nearly five o'clock, and the day was beginning to 
break, when the Due de Berry heard the clattering of the horses 
of the King's escort in the Rue Rameau. " Here is the King 
at last ! " he cried. " Oh ! that he may come qu'^kly ! . . . I 
am dying ! " Some minutes, however, passed before his Majesty 
appeared, for the infirm old monarch had to be got out of his 
carriage and carried up the stairs in an armchair ; and, as the 
stairs were steep and narrow, his progress was necessarily slow. 
Louis XVI 1 1, had seen many strange sights in his adven- 
turous life, but none more singular than that upon which his 
eyes rested when the stairs had at length been surmounted and 
he entered the room in which his dying nephew lay. There, in 
that shabby little apartment, with its walls lined with gaudy 
playbills and portraits and busts of operatic celebrities, were 
congregated the greatest personages in France : princes and 
princesses, ministers, marshals, and nobles. Some were in full 
evening toilette, others in carnival attire, and others, like 
Monsieur, only half-dressed. The Duchesse de Berry wearing a 
white peignoir, which some one had brought her to replace her 
evening-gown, but which had also become stained with blood, 
was kneeling by a truckle-bed ; near her was the Duchesse 




as j 
as d 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 155 

d'Orleans, in a magnificent toilette sparkling with diamonds, 
and with white plumes on her head ; and not far off a. figurante 
of the Opera, in rose tights and gauze skirt, who had been 
called in to help. 1 

And there, gasping out his life on the bed by which the 
princess knelt, lay the hope of his race — the nephew whom the 
King had last seen at the Tuileries, a few short hours before, in 
all the vigour of health and manhood ! The pale light of the 
wintry dawn creeping into the room added to the weirdness of 
the scene. 

The moment the dying prince caught sight of the King, he 
cried in a voice of entreaty : " Sire, grdce, grdce pour la vie 
de Pkomme." The King stooped down and kissed him, and 
replied : " My nephew, you are not so ill as you think ; we shall 
have time to consider this request when you are cured." 2 The 
Due de Berry repeated his demand, but Louis XVIII. again 
returned an evasive answer. " Ah ! Sire, you do not say yes," 
cried the prince, and, according to General de Reiset, the Due 
d'Angouleme joined his entreaties to those of his brother. " Sire," 
said he, " be pleased to accede to his request ; for more than 
two hours this desire has been tormenting him." "All this 
requires reflection," answered the King, and, turning to the 
Due de Berry, said : " Speak of yourself, my son ; that would be 
better." 3 

The prince was silent for some minutes. Then he exclaimed : 
" The favour of the man's life would, however, have sweetened 
the bitterness of my last moments " ; and, some time afterwards, 
still pursuing the same train of thought, he murmured in a 
voice broken by the agony he was suffering : " Ah ! ... at 
least if ... I was carrying away the thought . . . that a man's 
blood . . . would not be shed on my account . . . after my 
death . . ." * 

Meanwhile, Louis XVIII., who had seated himself at the 
foot of the bed, had perceived the two little daughters of Amy 

1 Some writers assert that this figurante was none other than Virginie Oreille. 

2 Deposition du docteur Dupuytre?i. Dupuytren lays emphasis on the fact that 
the Due de Berry asked for the life of " the man " and not for his pardon, as so many 
writers state. The King might have commuted the capital sentence, but it would, of 
course, have been impossible for him to accord him a free pardon. 

* Souvenirs du lieutenant-ghieral vicomte de Reiset. Dupuytren says nothing 
about the intervention of the Due d'Angouleme. 

* Deposition du docteur Dupuytren, 



156 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Brown. He inquired who they were, and the Duchesse de 
Berry said a few words to him in an undertone. Then she 
presented them to him, adding : " I have promised to adopt 
these children, and I ask the King, in the name of him whom 
we love, to deign to bestow his bounties on them." His Majesty 
reflected for a moment, then, recollecting what had been done 
in previous reigns, he said : " I will give the names of Comtesse 
de Vierzon to the one, and of Comtesse d'Issoudun to the 
other." 1 

The doctors continued their attentions to the prince, 
less from any hope of saving him than of alleviating his suffer- 
ings, for it was obvious that he was sinking fast. Turning to 
Dupuytren, Louis XVIII. inquired, in Latin, if he still retained 
any hope (" Superstes ne spes aliqua salutis ? "), and, on 
receiving the answer he feared, raised his eyes to Heaven and 
exclaimed : " God's will be done ! " 2 

In a momentary respite from pain, the Due de Berry called 
to his tutor in arms and faithful companion in exile, the vener- 
able Comte de Nantouillet, to come and embrace him for the 
last time, and thanked Dupuytren for his attentions. He also 
spoke affectionately to several of his personal friends, and recom- 
mended his servants to the protection of Monsieur and the Due 
d'Angouleme. 

The last moment was now approaching ; and the Duchesse 
de Berry, whose fortitude had at last given way, was sobbing 
hysterically. At the earnest entreaty of her husband, she con- 
sented to retire with the Duchesse de Reggio and Madame de 
Bethisy into an adjoining room ; but, hearing the prince cry 
out, she broke from their detaining hands, rushed back, and 
threw herself at the foot of the bed, making the room resound 
with the name of "Charles! Charles! Oh! my Charles!" 3 
The prince, murmuring some indistinct words, which most 
writers allege were a last appeal for the life of Louvel, though 
Dupuytren declares that he caught those of " France" and 
" Patrie" sank into unconsciousness ; and soon, in spite of the 
efforts of the surgeons, his breathing was no longer perceptible. 
Dupuytren asked for a mirror, and the King passed him his 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mfaioires. 

2 According to General de Reiset, Dupuytren was not sufficiently well acquainted 
with Latin to understand his Majesty's question, and one of his colleagues had to 
answer for him. 

3 Deposition du docteur Dripuytren. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 157 

snuff-box, which had a glass lid. The surgeon held it to the 
lips and nostrils of the prince. No vapour tarnished it. 

The Due de Berry was dead ! 1 

Louis XVIII., who was anxiously watching Dupuytren, 
asked him : " Is it all over ? " The surgeon replied in the 
affirmative, and inquired if his Majesty desired to show the 
prince the "last respects." "The last attentions," corrected 
the King, who, though the tears were coursing down his cheeks, 
did not, even at such a moment as this, forget the exigencies of 
etiquette. 2 "Yes; assist me." And, taking Dupuytren's arm, 
he approached the bed. " A religious curiosity suspended our 
tears," writes the surgeon ; " all eyes were turned upon the 
King ; we waited anxiously. Then, extending a hand trembling 
with grief over the face of the royal victim, the King closed his 
eyelids, and, in a voice broken by sobs, murmured : ' Sleep in 
peace, my child!' Then he kissed him on the forehead, and, 
taking the prince's hand, raised it to his lips. At this patriarchal 
scene, the expressions of grief, momentarily restrained, burst 
forth violently on all sides." 3 

The Duchesse de Berry, in the adjoining room, heard the 
sounds which announced that the prince was no more, and 
breaking away from her ladies, who vainly endeavoured to 
restrain her, rushed frantically towards the door. Monsieur 
stood there to keep her out ; but she gave him so violent a 
push that they both fell to the ground. 4 Springing up, the 
princess ran to the bed, threw herself upon the inanimate body 
of her husband, and bathed his face with her tears. The King 
sought to calm her, but she, rising from the bed and casting 
herself at his feet, cried : " Sire, I have one favour to ask your 
Majesty. You will not refuse me. It is permission to return 
to Sicily with my child. I cannot live here after my husband's 
death ! " " You are distracted by grief, my child," replied the 
King, kindly, and, as the princess sank fainting to the floor, he 
made a sign to the Vicomte Sosthene de la Rochefoucauld, 
who raised her up and carried her from the room and down the 
stairs, followed by the Duchesse d'Angouleme and Madame 
de Gontaut, who held the little Mademoiselle in her arms. The 

1 Deposition du docteur Dupuytren . 

2 Baron de Barante, Souvenirs. 

3 Deposition du docteur Dtipuytren. 

4 Charles de Remusat to Madame de Remusat, February, 1820. 



158 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

carriages were summoned, and La Rochefoucauld placed the 
Duchesse de Berry, still unconscious, in hers. Madame de 
Gontaut has left us a touching account of the return to the 
Elysee : 

" I sat down beside her ; her head fell on myshoulder. The 
Duchesse d'Angouleme was on the front-seat and supported us 
both. As we entered the courtyard of the Elysee, Madame re- 
covered consciousness, and groped about with her icy hands for 
him who had just been taken from her. The discovery that 
she was parted from him gave her a moment of terrible despair. 
We endeavoured to take her to her own apartment, but she 
refused and went straight to that of Monseigneur. This was 
another agony for her. Everything was in readiness to receive 
him who was no more ; his armchair drawn up, his dressing- 
gown spread out — all except himself, except life ! She clung to 
me convulsively, and pressed her daughter to her heart ; the 
poor little thing was frightened and cried. I entrusted her to 
Madame Lemoine, Madame having told me to remain with her. 
She wept passionately over everything that belonged to him ; 
and, as she no longer restrained the violence of her grief, her 
cries were heartrending ! She desired to remain in this room, 
kneeling beside the bed, to which she clung with clenched hands. 
She, so calm, so courageous, during the dreadful night, now 
gave way to the very excess of despair. She had expressed a wish 
to be left alone with me, and I persuaded her gently to undress, 
for her clothes were still wet with blood. They brought me her 
night-clothes, and I was able to prevail upon her to take some 
repose. She told me to close the doors, and I promised not to 
leave her. It was then, I think, six o'clock. I took care that 
she should have perfect quiet, and I seated myself on the steps 
of the bed, while she slept for several hours, the sleep of weari- 
ness and youth." 

When the poor princess awoke, grief resumed its sway, and 
Madame de Gontaut in vain endeavoured to soothe her. While 
she was sleeping, her women had hurriedly prepared her widow's 
weeds, and the dress had been laid out. No one ventured to 
propose that she should put this lugubrious costume on, but, 
when she saw it, she immediately assumed it. At Madame de 
Gontaut's suggestion, she then went into a little oratory to hear 
the Mass which her almoner was saying for the repose of her 
husband's soul, and it was on this occasion, the writer tells us, 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 159 

that a lady who had some talent for drawing made a portrait of 
the princess which she gave to her. 

After several hours, " passed partly in prayer and always in 
tears and sobs," Madame de Gontaut spoke to her mistress of 
her unborn child, for whose sake she besought her to make an 
effort to master her grief. The princess promised to do so, and 
was at length persuaded to take a little nourishment. 

In the course of the day, Monsieur came to the Elysee, so 
changed that he was scarcely recognisable. His face was deadly 
pale, his eyes swollen by weeping, and his hair, in a single night, 
had become quite white. He endeavoured to sustain his daughter- 
in-law's courage, but, at the sight of him, her tears broke 
forth afresh, and, in her despair, she declared that her only 
wish was to leave France and return to Sicily, so as to put as 
great a distance as possible between herself and the place where 
the only one who could make her happy had been done to death. 
Monsieur reasoned with her, and eventually succeeded in making 
her understand the impossibility of executing such a project. 
He then told her that the King, aware of how painful it would 
be for her to remain at the Elysee, had placed at her disposal 
whichever of the royal residences she might prefer. She chose 
Saint-Cloud and asked that she might be permitted to go 
thither at once with her little daughter ; and that very evening 
she quitted the home where she had once been so happy, and to 
which she was never to return, and set out for Saint-Cloud, 
where she installed herself in the apartments of the Due and 
Duchesse d'Angouleme. 



CHAPTER XII 

The body of the Ducde Berry transported to the Louvre — Consternation in Paris 
— Decazes tenders his resignation to the King, who refuses to accept it — An 
unfortunate incident — Meeting of the Chambers — Clausel de Coussergues demands 
the impeachment of Decazes, "as an accomplice of the assassination of the Due de 
Berry " — Furious outcry against the Minister — The resistance of Louis XVIII. 
eventually overcome by the representation of Monsieur and the Duchesse d' Angouleme 
— Fall of Decazes — Grief of the King — Lying-in-state of the Due de Berry — His 
obsequies at Saint-Denis — Monuments erected to his memory. 

AN hour after the ill-fated Due de Berry had expired, his 
body, covered by a flag, was transported to the 
Louvre, in the same carriage which had brought him 
to the Opera the evening before, full of life and health. No one 
had thought of warning the governor, the Marquis d'Autichamp, 
until the carriage had actually entered the courtyard of the 
chateau, and the poor man, who was even unaware of the crime, 
was so overcome at the sight that for some time he was 
incapable of giving orders. The body was accordingly taken 
into his own apartments and laid upon a table, where it remained 
while the chapelle ardente was being prepared, the clergy of 
Saint-Germain TAuxerrois praying beside it. 

In the meanwhile, the news of the prince's death had spread 
through Paris, and the utmost consternation prevailed. All 
sorts of absurd rumours were in circulation. Some declared that 
the assassin was a man whose wife the Due de Berry had seduced ; 
others, that he was a soldier to whom Napoleon had given the 
Cross of the Legion of Honour during the Hundred Days, and 
from whose breast the prince had torn it, in a moment of anger. 
When, however, it became known that the motive of the crime 
was a political one, grief was superseded by indignation, and the 
excited crowds which thronged the streets raised shouts of 
vengeance against the extreme Liberals, who had been so 
industrious of late in fomenting the worst passions, and against 
the Minister who passed for their protector. 

1 60 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 161 

Decazes, foreseeing the storm which was about to burst upon 
his head, and that no effort would be spared by the ultra- 
Royalists to induce the King to dismiss the object of their 
hatred, wished to spare his sorrowing master this new trial, and, 
on Louis XVIII.'s return to the Tuileries, he, with rare self- 
denial, at once offered his resignation. The King, however, 
refused to hear of it. " Policy and friendship," he said, " alike 
forbid me to surrender France to those who would speedily 
ruin her. I order you to remain in the Ministry. They shall 
not separate us." 

At eight o'clock that morning, a council was held, at which 
it was decided that measures temporarily suspending personal 
liberty, subjecting the Press to rigorous supervision, and con- 
stituting the Chamber of Peers a State tribunal for the trial of 
the assassin and his accomplices, should be submitted that 
same day to the Chambers. By these concessions to the party 
of reaction the King fondly hoped that the fury of the " Ultras " 
might be appeased. The distribution of a handful of crumbs 
among a pack of ravening wolves would have been equally 
effective. 

Unhappily for Decazes, an incident which had occurred 
shortly after the arrest of Louvel had provided his enemies 
with a weapon which they were not slow to turn to account. 

Immediately on learning of the crime, Decazes had hastened 
to the Opera, and, with the Prefect of Police and two of his 
colleagues in the Ministry, Pasquier and Simeon, had proceeded 
to interrogate the assassin. Before, however, the official 
examination began, the Minister had demanded of Louvel, in 
an undertone, whether the dagger had been poisoned, in the 
belief that, if such were the case, the assassin might be induced 
to reveal it, and thus save the life of his victim. These few 
whispered words were interpreted by the malignity of some of 
those present into a recommendation of silence from Decazes 
to an accomplice, and, though the Due de Fitz-James, who had 
overheard the conversation, protested against this monstrous 
calumny, it was soon circulating all over Paris. " Never, 
perhaps," observes Lamartine, " did political enmity observe 
less decency, in the regret for so sudden and calamitous a 
tragedy, or make more haste to turn to the profit of its party 
the blood which was, as it were, still flowing." 

At one o'clock the Chamber of Deputies met. The most 

M 



162 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

intense excitement prevailed, and all the approaches to the 
Palais-Bourbon were blocked by seething crowds. The 
attendance was a very large one, but Decazes and the other 
Ministers were absent, as the examination of the assassin was 
then going on. The sitting began, as usual, with the reading 
by one of the clerks of the House of the report of the last 
debate, to which, however, no one paid the smallest attention. 
Scarcely had he finished, than Clausel de Coussergues, one 
of the most violent of the " Ultras," ascended the tribune. 
" Messieurs," cried he, " there is no law in existence to regulate 
the impeachment of Ministers, but the nature of such a pro- 
ceeding demands that it should be made in a public sitting, and 
in the face of France. I propose to the Chamber, therefore, an 
act of accusation against M. Decazes, Minister of the Interior, 
as an accomplice of the assassination of the Due de Berry ! " 
His next sentence was drowned by the indignant shouts of the 
Centre and Left, and, perceiving that it was useless to proceed, 
he quitted the tribune, after demanding that he should be 
allowed to proceed with his accusation. The President of the 
Chamber at once declared his notice informal and inadmissible, 
and that he had only permitted him to address the House 
under the impression that he had had something to say relative 
to the report which had just been read. He then read to the 
Chamber the letter which the King had addressed to him in 
his official capacity, announcing the assassination and death of 
the Due de Berry ; and after the leaders of the different parties 
had expressed their horror at the crime, and their sympathy 
with the Royal Family, a committee was appointed to draw up 
an address of condolence to the King, and the House adjourned. 

It was speedily apparent that the terrible accusation launched 
by Clausel de Coussergues from the tribune was echoed by a con- 
siderable portion of the nation. The Court, the Chambers, the 
salons, the streets, the journals, resounded with the most furious 
invectives against the Minister whom the whole ultra-Royalist 
party unanimously regarded as the moral, if not the actual, 
accomplice of the assassination. 

The Drapeau blanc, a journal noted for the extravagance of 
its reactionary views, declared that the real criminal was the man 
who had nourished, caressed, and unchained the Revolutionary 
tiger. " Yes, M. Decazes," the article continued, " it is you who 
have slain the Due de Berry ! Weep tears of blood, obtain the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 163 

pardon of Heaven, but the country will never forgive you." 
The other organs of the same party, the Quotidienne, the Con- 
servateur, the Journal des Debats, and the Gazette de France, 
were scarcely less violent in their denunciations. 

In the Chamber of Deputies, Clausel de Coussergues re- 
newed his accusation, though in a modified form, and when 
stigmatised as a calumniator by Decazes's father-in-law, the 
Marquis de Sainte-Aulaire, replied, " France will judge." A 
motion that, in the official report of the previous day's proceed- 
ings, his motion should be qualified as having been received 
with indignation by the whole House was negatived without a 
division. 

The salons were almost hysterical in their rage, and high-born 
ladies were heard regretting that torture had been abolished, as, 
otherwise, the assassin, who persisted in denying that he had 
any accomplices, might have been forced to disclose them. In 
the streets people suspected of holding advanced opinions were 
insulted and ill-treated ; and the general ferment communicated 
itself to the Army, where several duels were reported to have 
been forced upon officers who ventured to defend the Minister. 

The more fiercely his favourite was assailed, the more de- 
termined was Louis XVIII. to defend him. Quite apart from 
his personal affection for Decazes, the King had identified 
himself so closely with the policy pursued by his Minister that 
he felt that to dismiss him would be tantamount to his own 
abdication. " The wolves," said he, sadly, " ask nothing of the 
shepherd but the sacrifice of the dog." 

Here, however he had to reckon not only with public 
opinion, but with the members of his own family. On the 
evening following the tragedy, Monsieur, the Due d'Angouleme, 
and Madame dined with the King without a single word being 
exchanged ; on the 15th, it was the same ; on the 16th, all three 
absented themselves from the royal table. On the evening of 
the 1 8th, Decazes, who had continued to present himself at the 
Tuileries, notwithstanding that he had received several warnings 
that the Gardes du corps were so exasperated against him that 
he went in danger of his life, came to wait upon the King. He 
found him in a terrible state of agitation, his face purple, his 
eyes bloodshot. Anxiously he inquired the reason. His 
Majesty, when he had succeeded in composing himself a little, 
replied that Monsieur and the Due d'Angouldme had dined 



1 64 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

with him again that evening; that, as soon as the attendants 
had retired, his brother and Madame had thrown themselves on 
their knees before him and entreated him to dismiss Decazes ; 
that, when he had defended his Minister, Monsieur had invited 
him to choose between Decazes and himself, and announced his 
intention of leaving the Tuileries, " if M. Decazes, publicly 
accused by M. Clausel de Coussergues of complicity in the 
death of his son, appeared there again as Minister." * 

It was clearly impossible for the King to resist any longer, 
as Decazes himself did not hesitate to point out ; and three days 
later (February 21) an ordinance appeared in the Moniteur, 
announcing that the Due de Richelieu had replaced the Comte 
Decazes as President of the Council, and had formed a new 
Cabinet. The latter was appointed Ambassador in London, 
and, to show that the dismissal of his favourite was not a 
disgrace, and that he was perfectly satisfied with his services, 
Louis XVIII. bestowed upon him the title of duke. The King, 
indeed, was almost as much afflicted by the departure of his 
favourite as he had been by the assassination of his nephew. 
" Farewell, my dear son," he wrote to him ; " I bless you a 
thousand times from the depths of a broken heart ! " 

Thus terminated the ministerial career of a man who had 
scarcely attained his fortieth year, and who was to live for 
over forty more without ever returning to power. For five 
years he had exercised in France an influence which few have 
equalled, and, if he had made mistakes, his policy as a whole 
undoubtedly added to the life of the Monarchy. 2 

The body of the Due de Berry remained in the governor's 
apartments at the Louvre until February 16, when it was 
removed to the southern gallery of the palace, which had been 
hung with funeral draperies and sumptuously decorated, and 
placed on a catafalque, surrounded by lighted tapers ; the 
insignia of the prince's rank : the sword, the ducal crown, the 
royal mantle, and the collars of his various Orders being 
deposited beside it. On either side of the catafalque two altars 
had been erected, where masses were said all the morning, and 
the Office of the Dead recited at night. The officers of the 

1 Lamartine, Histoire de la Restauratio?i ; Ernest Daudet, Louis XVIII. et le due 
Decazes. 

2 Vieil-Castel, Histoire de la Restauration . 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 165 

prince's Household and the heralds-at-arms watched beside the 
dead. 

For a week the murdered prince lay in state, while an 
endless procession of people, from the Due d'Orleans to the 
humblest workman, defiled before the catafalque. Then, on 
the morning of February 22, the coffin was transported, in great 
pomp, to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, in a funeral car surmounted 
by a silver urn. Here, it was again exposed in a chapelle ardente 
until March 14, on which day the obsequies took place with all 
the impressive ceremonial of the ancient Monarchy, in the 
presence of the King, the Royal Family, the Princes and 
Princesses of the Blood, the nobility, the clergy, deputations 
from the Chambers, and representatives of every profession and 
trade in the capital, places being reserved even for the charcoal- 
burners and market-porters. The old basilica, hung with black 
throughout its whole extent, resembled an immense tomb, and 
" such was the grandeur of the pageant that those present might 
have fancied themselves assisting at the obsequies of the 
Monarchy." x " The body having been lowered into the grave," 
says the Journal de Paris, " the King-at-arms of France and 
two heralds-at-arms approached the tomb. The King-at-arms 
remained at the entrance, and the two heralds descended into 
the vault. The King-at-arms then summoned in succession the 
principal officers of Mgr. le due de Berry, who were carrying 
the insignia, and they presented themselves in the following 
order : the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the grand 
cordon of the Order of the Legion of Honour, the grand cordon 
of the Order of Saint-Louis, the collar of the Order of the Holy 
Ghost, the mantle, and the crown. The crown was born by 
M. de Nantouillet, 2 who pronounced the following words, in 
addressing the officers of the prince's Household : ' Mgr. le 
due de Berry, your master and mine is dead ! Officers, provide 
for yourselves.' The King-at-arms then cried twice in a loud 
voice : ' Very high and very puissant Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, 
due de Berry, is dead ! Pray God for the repose of his soul ! ' " 3 

The Opera-house, at the door of which the Due de Berry 
had received his mortal wound, and where he had breathed 

1 Memoires touchant la vie et la mort du due de Berry. 

2 The Comte Nantouillet had been first gentleman of the chamber to the Due 
de Berry. 

3 Journal de Paris, March 15, 1820. 



166 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

his last, was never used again after the night of the crime. 
Regarded henceforth as an accursed place, its demolition was 
immediately voted by the Chambers, and it was decided to 
erect on the site an expiatory chapel. The monument, however, 
was still unfinished at the time of the fall of the legitimate 
monarchy, and, after hesitating for a year or two whether to 
proceed with it or no, Louis-Philippe caused it to be pulled 
down. A fountain now marks the spot where the Due de Berry 
was assassinated. 

Another attempt to perpetuate the memory of the unfortunate 
prince met with a happier fate. A few weeks after his death, 
the municipal council of Versaill S — the town in which he had 
been born — started a public subscription, with the object of 
erecting a monument in the cathedral ; and, on February 12, 
1824, a marble statue by the sculptor Pradier was unveiled there. 
It represented the Due de Berry expiring, supported by Religion, 
who was presenting to him the cross, while on the pedestal was 
the town of Versailles, represented by a woman weeping over 
a tomb, and the famous words : 

"Grace, grace pour l'homme." 

After the July Revolution, this statue was removed from the 
cathedral, lest it should offend the susceptibilities of the 
supporters of the new regime^ and it was not until 1852, when 
Napoleon III. had ascended the throne, that it was replaced. 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Duchesse de Berry installed at the Pavilion de Marsan at the Tuileries — A 
cruel contrast — First appearance of the princess in public since the death of her 
husband — Jacobin attempts against her and her unborn child — Courage of the 
princess — Singular dream — Her conviction that she is destined to bear a prince — 
Violent agitation against the Government — Riots in Paris — Trial of Louvel — His 
behaviour while in prison — His remarkable speech before the Chamber of Peers — He 
is sentenced to death — His last hours — His execution — Formidable conspiracy against 
the reigning dynasty discovered — The hopes of the Royalists are centred in the 
child which the Duchesse de Berry is to bear — Verses of Victor Hugo — Arrival of a 
deputation from the market-women of Bordeaux to present a cradle to the Duchesse de 
Berry — A present from Pau — The name of Henri chosen for the hoped-for prince — A 
rumour is circulated by the enemies of the Monarchy that the princess is not pregnant, 
and that there is to be a supposititious child — Precautions adopted by Louis XVIII. to 
refute this calumny. 

THE Duchesse de Berry's stay at Saint-Cloud only lasted 
a few days. It had been decided that the Tuileries 
was to be her residence in future, and that she should 
occupy the apartments on the ground-floor of the Pavilion de 
Marsan, which had been those of her husband before his marriage; 
and, as soon as the necessary preparations had been completed, 
she returned to Paris and took possession of them. 

These apartments were not entirely strange to the princess. 
She had slept there on the night of her triumphant entry into 
Paris in 1816, the eve of her marriage at Notre-Dame. Ah! 
how happy, how full of joyous anticipation, she had been then ! 
How little did she imagine that in less than four years the 
prince whom she was to wed on the morrow would be snatched 
from her by one of the most terrible crimes in the blood-stained 
annals of French history ! And all her surroundings had been 
in harmony with her feelings ; everything had been made 
ready to welcome the happy bride. The apartments had been 
upholstered and decorated in the most cheerful of colours ; 
choice flowers in exquisitely-carved silver bowls or porcelain 
vases had stood on every table ; gilded mirrors had reflected 
her smiles. Now all was changed ; that fairylike abode resembled 

167 



168 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

a mortuary chapel, for, in accordance with Court etiquette, the 
walls were draped in black ; the mirrors, the chairs, the foot- 
stools, were covered with crape, and, when evening came, none 
but candles of yellow wax were lighted. The only concession 
that Louis XVIII. had been persuaded to accord was that, in 
the duchess's bedchamber, the black should be replaced by grey. 
The poor princess, however, still entirely absorbed by her grief, 
only sighed and made no complaint. 

For a month the Duchesse de Berry remained in her apart- 
ments, and it was only on March 20 — exactly five weeks after 
the tragedy which had deprived her of her husband — that she 
showed herself in public again, when dressed in the deepest 
mourning, and accompanied by her little daughter, she took 
a walk along the Terrasse du Bord de l'Eau. Her pregnancy 
had now been officially announced, and her appearance was 
greeted with enthusiastic acclamations ; and every day crowds 
assembled in the gardens of the Tuileries and waited patiently 
for hours, on the chance of catching a glimpse of the young 
widow who bore within her the hope of all royalist France. 

Louvel, as we have seen, had had no accomplices, but, in the 
disturbed condition of the country, there were, unhappily, only 
too many who secretly rejoiced at a crime which had removed 
the only prince of the reigning branch of the Bourbons likely 
to leave posterity, and some who were even prepared to con- 
summate the work of the fanatic's dagger by the destruction 
of the Duchesse de Berry's unborn child. 

A little before midnight on April 28, a petard was exploded 
near the windows of the Pavilion de Marsan, under one of the 
wickets of the Place du Carrousel, obviously in the hope of 
causing the duchess such a shock that a miscarriage would 
follow. The princess, however, showed the utmost sang-froid, 
and merely remarked : " They would evidently like to frighten 
me, but they will not succeed." 

Some nights later, the attempt was renewed ; but, this time, 
the police were on the alert, and arrested the criminal, as he was 
in the act of laying a match to the train. He proved to be a 
former officer in the Army named Gravier, and it was subse- 
quently ascertained that he had an accomplice of the name 
of Bouton. Both were brought to trial and, a little while after 
the birth of the Due de Bordeaux, condemned to death. The 
Duchesse de Berry, however, hastened to intercede for them, 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 169 

and their sentence was commuted to one of imprisonment. 
" The angel whom I mourn," wrote she to the King, " demanded, 
when he was dying, mercy for his murderer ; he will always 
be the arbiter of my life. Permit me, my dear uncle, to implore 
your Majesty to accord the favour of life to these two unhappy 
men." 1 

This incident occasioned the Court general alarm, and the 
crowds which daily assembled to wait for the appearance of the 
Duchesse de Berry became a subject of perpetual anxiety. It 
was therefore suggested to her that, when she went to take her 
morning walk upon the terrace, she should make use of the under- 
ground passages which formed a means of communication be- 
tween it and the terrace, instead of passing through the gardens. 
She indignantly refused, however, to take any such precaution. 
" I am delighted," said she, " to show myself to these worthy 
people, who share our joy and our hopes, and if they did not 
see me any more, they might imagine that I was afraid." 

The natural courage of the princess had been fortified by 
a singular dream which she had lately had, and in which she 
had seen a certain proof of the divine protection ; and, from that 
moment, she was firmly persuaded, not only that she would be 
safely delivered, but that her child would be a son. 

w About the fourth month of my pregnancy," she writes, 
"while I was asleep, I beheld Saint-Louis enter my room, just 
as he is painted, his crown on his head, his great royal mantle 
sewn with the fleurs-de-lis, and his venerable face. I presented 
my little girl to him. He opened his mantle and presented me 
with the prettiest little boy. Then, taking off his crown, he 
placed it on his head. 

" For my part, I kept pushing Louise forward. Nevertheless, 
he persisted in keeping the crown on the boy's head, though he 
sheltered my daughter under his mantle. Saint-Louis then 
disappeared with my two children, and I awoke persuaded that 
I should bear a son, and since then not a single doubt on 
that subject occurred to me during the whole time of my 
pregnancy." 2 

Louis XVIII., who did not share this blind confidence and 
feared that, if the princess's expectations were not realised, the 

1 Nettement, Memoires sur Madame, la duchesse de Berri. 

2 Letter of the Duchesse de Berry to the Comte de Brissac, published by Imbert 
de Saint- Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de Louis XVIII. 



170 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

disappointment would be a cruel one and mighthave a prejudicial 
effect upon her health, warned her not to make so sure, but she 
only smiled and observed : " Saint-Louis knows more about it 
than you, father." 1 And she commissioned a very beautiful 
silver-gilt statue representing Louis IX. as he had appeared to 
her, procured several relics of the saintly monarch, which she 
placed upon the pedestal, and offered up a fervent prayer before 
the statue every day. 

It might be said that France herself was in travail during 
the pregnancy of the Duchesse de Berry. The discussions on 
the vexed question of the modification of the Electoral Law 
roused party passions to so dangerous a height that the country 
seemed to be on the verge of civil war. Never since the 
Revolution had there been such turmoil in the streets of Paris. 
While inside the Palais-Bourbon the deputies were exchanging 
the bitterest recriminations, outside cavalry were charging the 
tumultuous crowds which had gathered to protest against the 
reactionary policy of the new Government. Every evening the 
troops and the rioters bivouacked in the public squares. " Paris," 
writes Lamartine, "resembled a camp in which two nations 
stood face to face, the one to impose, the other to refuse, sub- 
mission to the ministerial law." 2 

In the midst of these commotions, Louvel was tried by the 
Chamber of Peers (June 5, 1820). That his trial had been 
deferred until then was due to the hope that he might be 
induced to reveal his accomplices, or that, failing such confession, 
the authorities might succeed in discovering them. But, since 
he persisted in asserting that he alone was guilty, and since the 
most rigorous investigation failed to show that he had held com- 
munication with any one save a few harmless persons of his own 
class for many months preceding the crime, the commissioners 
charged with the affair at length came to the conclusion that he 
spoke the truth. " This decision was received with disgust by 
the c Ultras,' and M. de Bastard 3 was almost regarded as his 
accomplice, because he refused to recognise accomplices in those 
whom party spirit marked as such." 4 

1 Souvenirs du lieutenant-gSnSral vicomte de Relset. 

2 Histoire de la Restaur atio?i. 

3 Dominique Francis Marie, Comte de Bastard l'Estang. He was president of 
the commksion. 

4 Madame de Boigne, Mhnoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 171 

During his confinement, first at the Luxembourg and after- 
wards at the Conciergerie, Louvel had shown himself a model 
prisoner, conforming willingly to the regulations, uttering no 
complaint, and being scrupulously clean in his person. For his 
crime he showed no vestige of repentance, but appeared to glory 
in it, declaring that posterity would hold him justified. In 
regard to his fate he evinced the most stoical indifference ; he 
had counted the cost and was fully prepared to pay it. When, 
on the day of his trial, it was suggested that if he expressed 
penitence before his judges, the royal clemency might possibly 
be extended to him, out of respect for the last wishes of his 
victim, he repulsed the idea with scorn. "Speak not to me 
of repentance or, above all, of clemency ! " he exclaimed. " For 
I declare that, if the mercy demanded by the Due de Berry 
were accorded me, it would be more painful than death." Then 
he turned away and began playing with a little dog belonging 
to one of the Conciergerie officials, which had attached itself to 
him. 

Although quite unconcerned for himself, he was much 
distressed on account of his sisters — two very respectable women 
— fearing that people might now be prejudiced against them and 
would refuse to employ them, and he wrote, begging for their 
forgiveness. Before leaving the Conciergerie, he asked, as a 
favour, that the coarse sheets on his bed might be changed for 
finer ones, in order that he might sleep in comfort on the last 
night which he was to pass on earth. 

" He appeared before the Chamber of Peers," writes Bar- 
thelemy Saint-Hilaire, " dressed exactly as he had been on the 
night of the crime. His blue redingote was buttoned up to the 
chin, and he wore a black cravat. His face was pale and wan, 
like that of a man who comes forth from a long captivity, but 
his demeanour was calm and perfectly assured. He supported 
without emotion his entrance into a court where the most lively 
curiosity awaited him, and all present were astonished at his 
manner and his attitude ; they had not expected such dignity 
and propriety in a man of his profession." x 

His examination was a brief one, and he replied with 
assurance and good sense to all the questions addressed to him. 
He again denied that he had had any accomplices and declared 
that it was " une interieure commission " with which he had 

1 La psychologie criminelle ; Louvel, Revue des Deux Motides, May 1830. 



172 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

charged himself. " Were you not well aware that your crime 
was a capital offence ? " inquired the president of the court. 
" That was a matter of such little consequence," was the reply. 
" Nothing need be seen in me but a good Frenchman who 
sacrifices himself for his country. If I had escaped, I should 
have persevered against the Due d'Angouleme and all the 
others who have borne arms against the country, and who have 
betrayed it." 

Contrary to anticipation, it was found impossible to finish 
the case that day, and the court accordingly adjourned until the 
following morning. " It is a day gained," observed one of the 
gendarmes who guarded him to the prisoner. " Say rather 
that it is a day lost," replied Louvel. He was ably defended 
by Maitre Bonnet, a brilliant advocate, who pleaded that his 
client was a monomaniac, who ought not to be held accountable 
for his actions, and made an eloquent appeal to the court to 
respect the dying entreaty of the Due de Berry. His description 
of the ill-fated prince's anxiety to obtain the King's promise that 
the life of his assassin should be spared was so touching that 
every one was in tears, and it is just possible that, if Louvel had 
remained silent, his condemnation might have been followed by 
a recommendation to mercy. But any remote chance which 
the prisoner might have possessed he deliberately threw away, 
for, when asked if he had anything to say in his defence, 
disregarding the advice of his counsel, he rose and asked 
permission to read to the court a statement which he had 
prepared. This being accorded him, he drew a paper from his 
pocket, and, " in a tone of the coldest insensibility," 1 proceeded 
to deliver the following bitter indictment of the Bourbons : 

"Gentlemen, I have to blush for a crime which I alone 
committed. I have the consolation of believing, in dying, that 
I have dishonoured neither the nation nor my family. Nothing 
need be seen in me but a Frenchman who vowed to sacrifice 
himself, in order to destroy, in pursuit of his system, a part of 
the men who have taken up arms against his country. I am 
accused of having taken the life of a prince ; I alone am guilty ; 
but among the men who compose the Government there are 

1 Journal des DSbats, June 7, 1820. "Horror and indignation" did not permit 
the Debats to transcribe this document, and its contemporaries were equally discreet. 
It was not, indeed, until 1830 that it was published by Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, in 
a remarkable article on Louvel, in the Revue des Deux Mondes. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 173 

men more guilty than I am. . . . They have, in my view, 
recognised crimes as virtues. The worst governments France 
has had have punished the men who have betrayed her, and 
who have borne arms against the country." 

Here the prisoner's voice began sensibly to falter ; and he 
seemed to hesitate over certain sentences, of which he read the 
commencement without being able to finish them. However, 
he soon recovered his self-possession, though he continued to 
make occasional pauses : 

" According to my system, when foreign armies threaten . . . 
internal factions ought to cease their strife, and to rally to 
combat them, to make common cause against the enemies of all 
France. The Frenchmen who do not rally are criminals. The 
Frenchman who is compelled, by the injustice of the Govern- 
ment, to leave France — if this same Frenchman proceeds to 
take up arms on behalf of foreign armies against France, he 
becomes a criminal, and is unable to resume his quality of 
French citizen. 

" In my view ... I cannot avoid believing that if the battle 
of Waterloo was so fatal to France, it is because there were 
Frenchmen at Ghent and Brussels who had sown treason in 
our army and had aided the foreigner. 

" According to me and according to my system, the death 
of Louis XVI. was necessary, because the entire nation con- 
sented to it. If it had been a handful of intriguers who had 
gone to the King's palace and had taken his life in a moment 
. . . yes. I should believe it. . . . But, as Louis XVI. and his 
family remained under arrest for a long time, it is inconceivable 
that it should not have been by the consent of the nation. . . . 
So that if there had been only a few men, he would not have 
perished. The mass of the nation would have been opposed 
to it. To-day, the Bourbons claim to be masters of the nation ; 
but, in my view, the Bourbons are criminals, and the nation 
would be dishonoured if it allowed itself to be governed by 
them." 

The last part of this speech was pronounced in so low a 
voice that there were moments in which he was scarcely audible, 
notwithstanding the profound silence which reigned. At its 
conclusion he bowed to the court, and was conducted from the 
dock and back to the Conciergerie, while the Peers went through 
the form of deliberating upon his fate. 



174 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

About an hour later — it was half-past two in the afternoon — 
Cauchy, secretary of the Chamber, came to his cell to read to 
him the sentence of the court, which condemned him to death 
and, according to custom, " mulcted him in the expenses of the 
trial" — the wretched man possessed nothing but his saddler's 
tools and the clothes in which he stood — and to inform him 
that the execution was fixed for the following morning at eight 
o'clock. 

The prisoner, sitting at the foot of his bed, heard him 
without the slightest sign of emotion. "Do you wish me to 
send for a priest ? " inquired Cauchy. " No, I thank you, 
Monsieur. Of what use will a priest be to me ? Will he make 
me go to Paradise ? I should, however, be almost glad to do 
so, for I might perhaps find there the Prince de Conde, who has 
also borne arms again.it France!" Cauchy insisted. "Well, 
let it be so ! " said Louvel. " Send me the priest ; I will receive 
him with pleasure ; he will keep me company." 

He passed the night in writing to his relatives and in 
conversation with the priest — the Abbe" Montes, almoner of 
the Conciergerie — who remained with him until the morning, 
exhorting him to repentance and speaking of the infinite mercy 
of God. Louvel was sensibly touched by the good man's 
kindness. "You have sent me an excellent man," said he to 
Cauchy, who came early in the morning to inform him that the 
execution had been postponed until four o'clock in the after- 
noon. " I feared that my resistance caused him too much pain, 
and his kindness so affected me that I fell on my knees to 
confess to him some peccadilloes." 1 

When, at seven o'clock, the priest left him, he asked for 
some soup and wine, to restore him after his night's vigil, and 
then threw himself upon his bed and slept for some hours. At 
two o'clock, he took some food and afterwards wrote several 
letters. He appeared quite calm and almost cheerful. " What 
a number of people there will be on the road ! " said he to the 
prison officials. "I am sure that they will have paid very 
dearly for windows to see me. It is singular this eagerness of 
the multitude to assist at an execution." 2 

The time fixed for his departure from the Conciergerie 
passed, and the tumbril which was to convey him to the Place 

1 Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire. 

2 Charles Nauroy, les Demurs Bourbons : le due de Berry et Louvel. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 175 

de Greve did not arrive. Owing apparently to the disturbed 
condition of the streets, and their fear that a rescue might be 
attempted by the mob, the authorities were taking the pre- 
caution to strengthen the troops lining the route, and this had 
necessitated a further postponement of two hours. 

Towards five o'clock Louvel showed some impatience. " My 
carriage is very slow in coming to fetch me," said he, "for I 
presume it will be a carriage. There are countries where the 
criminal makes the journey on foot. At Douai, for example." 
And he coolly related to the astonished warders particulars of 
an execution which he had witnessed in that town. 1 

At length the tumbril arrived, and he set out for the Place de 
Greve, escorted by gendarmes and the cuirassiers of the Guard. 
The Abb£ Montes was by his side, but the condemned man paid 
no attention to his exhortations. " His demeanour," writes Bar- 
th&emy Saint-Hilaire, "was what it had always been — calm, 
cold, and, on that day, a little disdainful. He had obtained 
permission to keep his hat, which protected his head, which was 
bald in front. His eyes wandered calmly over the immense 
crowd gathered to gaze at him, and his countenance, during the 
transit, did not appear to change for a single instant. It is 
true, however, that for a long time past his complexion had 
been of a deadly pallor. At the foot of the scaffold the abbe 
said : ' My son, there is still time to disarm the Lord by a 
sincere repentance.' ' Let us make haste,' replied he. ' I am 
sorry about it ; but I am not expected up there.' He mounted 
the scaffold with a step which he endeavoured to render firm, 
but his long imprisonment had exhausted all his strength, and 
the executioner's assistants were obliged to support him. While 
they were tying him to the fatal plank, his eyes wandered calmly 
over the people in all directions. Almost exactly at six o'clock 
his head fell." 

The Electoral Bill was passed on June 12, and the Chambers 
prorogued, but the agitation in the country still continued. 
Abroad, the revolutionary spirit was alarmingly active, and the 
Bourbons of Spain and Naples were in even worse case than 
those of France. In Spain, Ferdinand VII. had been compelled 
to take the oath to the Constitution of 1812 and to open the 
revolutionary Cortes ; at Naples, Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies 

1 Nauroy. 



176 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

had been obliged temporarily to resign his authority to his 
eldest son Francis, father of the Duchesse de Berry. 

The insurrectionary movements beyond the Alps and the 
Pyrenees were naturally not without their influence upon the 
course of events in France. Lafayette had declared to his 
friends that open force was henceforth the only efficacious 
weapon to overthrow a government which had declared war 
against the equality of classes, and in mid-August a formidable 
conspiracy against the reigning dynasty, in which Lafayette 
himself and several other deputies of the Left were implicated, 
was only discovered by an accident. The friends of the 
Restoration felt the ground trembling beneath their feet. No 
hope seemed to remain to them save the child which the 
Duchesse de Berry was about to bear, and Victor Hugo, at this 
time a fervent Royalist, apostrophised the young princess in the 
following verses : 

" Pourtant, 6 frele appui de la tige royale, 

Si Dieu par ton secours signale son pouvoir, 
Tu peux sauver la France, et de l'hydre infernale 

Tromper encor l'affreux espoir. 
Ainsi, quand le serpent, autour de tous les crimes, 
Vouait d'avance aux noirs abimes 

L'homme que son forfait perdit, 
Le Seigneur abaissa sa farouche arrogance ; 
Une femme apparut, qui, faible et sans defense, 

Brisa du pied son front maudit." l 

Notwithstanding the terrible ordeal through which she had 
passed, the health of the Duchesse de Berry was excellent, and 
the nearer she approached her time, the more confident did she 
become that she was destined to bear a son. 

The Journal de Paris of August 20 announced that the 
event upon which so much depended might be expected to take 
place between the 20th and 28th of the following month, and, as 
September drew towards its close, the excitement became inde- 
scribable, and the clergy in all parts of the country were besieged 
by persons who desired to have Masses said on the princess's 
behalf. 

Louis XVIII., as we have mentioned elsewhere, had long 
since promised that, if the Duchesse de Berry gave birth to a son, 
he should bear the title of Due de Bordeaux. Three times the 
hopes of the Bordelais had been deceived ; but, on this occasion, 

1 Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de Louis XVIII, 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 177 

the confidence of the princess seems to have communicated 
itself to every one ; and a deputation from the market-women of 
Bordeaux was despatched to Paris, to thank the King for the 
honour done to their city and to offer the duchess a sumptuous 
cradle for the reception of her expected child. The deputation 
was entertained to dinner by Chateaubriand and Clausel de 
Coussergues, and requested the former to present them and 
their cradle to the Duchesse de Berry. But his Majesty had 
not forgotten that, after the dismissal of Decazes, the author of 
le Genie du Chvistianisme had contributed an article to the Con- 
servateur, in which, speaking of the fallen favourite, he had 
declared that "his feet had slipped in blood," and, says 
Chateaubriand, " I was not thought worthy to act as introducer 
of my humble ambassadresses." * 

The ambassadresses, however, were very graciously received 
at the Tuileries, and their leader, Madame Aniche, in present- 
ing the cradie, entreated the Duchesse de Berry to lie in at 
Bordeaux, since it was only fitting that the little duke should 
be born in the city from which he was to take his title, and both 
he and his mother would be much safer there than in Paris. 
" This," said she, proudly pointing to the cradle, " is to lay our 
prince in. We women will wash his swaddling-clothes, and 
our men will take care that the Jacobins do not prevent him 
from sleeping." 2 The princess had considerable difficulty in 
making these worthy women understand that it was impossible 
for her to accede to their request. 

About the same time, there arrived, from Pau, a box contain- 
ing a bottle of Jurancon wine and a clove of garlic, accompanied 
by a letter, in which the writer, a certain Chevalier de Gre, 
expressed the hope that Louis XVIII. would make the same 
use of them at the Tuileries as Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre, 
had done at the Chateau of Pau, on December 15, 1553, on the 
occasion of the birth of Henri IV. 3 He also enclosed a copy of 
the petition to Notre-Dame du Bout du Pont which Jeanne 
d'Albret had chanted just before the birth of her son. 4 

1 Memoires d'outre-tombe. 

2 Nettement, Memoires sur Madame, la Duchesse de Berri. 

3 In accordance with an old Bearnese custom, Henri d'Albret is said to have 
moistened the boy's lips with the wine and rubbed them with the garlic. 

4 The following is a French translation of the petition, which was in the Bearnese 
patois : 

N 



178 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

This pretty tradition, we are told, greatly pleased the 
Duchesse de Berry, and, in default of Notre-Dame du Bout du 
Pont, she at once vowed a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame de Liesse, 
if her prayers were answered. 

It had been announced that, if the child so eagerly awaited 
were a boy, he should be named after the first Bourbon King, 
and this decision had been hailed by the Royalists with universal 
approval. " People returned to this idea of Henri IV.," observes 
Nettement, " with a pleasure about which there was something 
remarkable. It appeared that every one understood, some by 
instinct, others by intelligence, that the prince who was about 
to be born would have before him civil strife to appease, 
obstacles to overcome, perils to surmount, an epoch of trouble 
and political passions to close. The public imagination was 
providing for the needs of France. The birth of a Henri IV. 
appeared probable, because the genius of a Henri IV. appeared 
necessary." 

Such was the violence of party spirit at this time that the 
enemies of the Restoration obstinately refused to believe in a 
pregnancy so opportune for the Monarchy, and pretended that 
there was to be a supposititious child. Absurd as this rumour 
was, Louis XVIII. recognised the importance of removing all 
possible ground for it, and every precaution was accordingly 
taken. As the official witnesses of the birth, he selected the 
Mankhal Due de Coigny, a gallant old soldier who had gained 
his first laurels, under Richelieu, in the campaign of Hanover in 
1757, and was respected even by the Jacobins, and Marechal 
Suchet, Due d'Albufera. Both were men whose integrity was 
proverbial, and the testimony of the latter — a marshal of the 
Empire — would be quite above suspicion. By orders of the 
King, Coigny and Suchet were installed at the Tuileries, in the 
Pavilion de Flore, from the middle of September, and the 
accoucheur Deneux and the wet-nurse were also at their posts. 

" Notre-Dame du Pout du Bont, 
Secourez-moi a l'heure qu'il est ; 

Priez le Dieu qui est au ciel 

Qu'il veuille bien me delivrer tot, 
Et que d'un fils qu'il me tasse don. 
Tout jusqu' a, la cime des montagnes l'implorer. 

Notre-Dame du Bout du Pont, 

Secourez-moi a l'heure qu'il est." 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 179 

The latter, who had been selected from a great number of candi- 
dates, after a minute examination of her physical and moral 
qualities, was a splendid-looking young woman, who had just 
given birth to an exceptionally fine and healthy boy. She 
was the wife of a notary at Armentieres called Bayard — a name 
which recalled one of the most heroic figures in French history 
— and this happy coincidence naturally gave rise to the jest that 
the Due de Bordeaux would be the foster-brother of Bayard. 

As the eventful moment approached, the young princess 
showed admirable coolness and courage. Recollecting that her 
first confinement had been a dangerous one, she impressed upon 
Deneux the necessity of saving the child at any cost to herself. 
" Remember," said she, " that you must not hesitate between us. 
My life is nothing, his is everything." l She had expressed a 
wish to be brought to bed in her salon. Above her head was 
to be Gerard's full-length portrait of the duke, and facing her a 
picture painted by Kinson, which represented her weeping, with 
her little daughter by her side, before the bust of her husband. 

1 Souvenirs du lieutenant-general vicomte de Reiset. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Birth of the Due de Bordeaux — Singular circumstances attending this event — 
Madame de Gontaut's narrative — Remarkable courage and sang-froid of the Duchesse 
de Berry — Arrival of the King — The Jurancon wine and the clove of garlic — " That 
is for you, and this is for me ! " — Indescribable enthusiasm of the Parisians — The Due 
de Bordeaux and the soldiers — Speech of Louis XVIII. to the crowd at the Tuileries 
— The public admitted to see the little prince — Rejoicings in Paris — The " child of 
miracle " and the " child of Europe " — Hysterical jubilation of the Royalist journals 
— Adulation of the poets. 

THE great day arrived with surprising suddenness. 
On September 28, the Duchesse de Berry took 
her customary walk on the Terrasse du Bord de 
l'Eau. On returning to the palace, she felt some pain, but 
Deneux attached no importance to these symptoms, and the 
King, on giving the countersign, said : " I do not believe that 
the Duchesse de Berry will be brought to bed for five or six 
days." However, at half-past two the following morning, two 
of the princess's waiting-women, Madame de Vathaire and 
Madame Bourgeois, who slept in an adjoining room, the door 
of which was always left open, were awakened by their mistress's 
voice crying : " Quick ! Quick ! there is not a moment to 
lose ! " Both women sprang up at once ; and, while Madame de 
Vathaire ran to warn Deneux, the Duchess de Reggio, and 
Madame de Gontaut, Madame Bourgeois hastened to the 
princess's bedside, only just in time to receive the child. 

It was a son ! 

" God, what happiness ! " cried the mother ; " it is a boy ! 
It is God who has sent him to us ! " 1 

But let us listen to Madame de Gontaut's account of that 
never-to-be-forgotten night : 

" I spent nearly all my time with the Duchesse de Berry ; 
but one evening [September 28] having had company in our 
little salon, I had not seen her, and, as she was suffering a 
little, she waited until my visitors had departed before coming 

1 Declaration of Madame Bourgeois, Moniteur, October 1, 1820. 
180 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 181 

to me. She then confessed to me that she had been in some 
pain during the evening. I informed her of all the precautions 
I had taken, and I wanted to stay with her ; but she said : 
' Rest easy ; at the first indication I will send for you.' She 
left me, and before going to bed myself, I went softly to her 
room. All was quiet, and she was asleep. I was doing the 
same, when, in the middle of the night, Madame de Vathaire 
came to my door, and, finding it locked, knocked repeatedly, 
and called me in a loud voice, saying : ' Come, quick, quick ! 
Madame is delivered ! Send the nurse ! Make haste ! ' I 
gave the order to go to Madame Lemoine [the accoucheuse]} 
whom I had warned the previous evening to be in readiness in 
case she was called. She ran there at once. 

" As I was always prepared to rise at the least signal, I only 
waited to slip on a peignoir, and to give some orders to the wait- 
ing-woman and to Mademoiselle's nurse. I reached Madame's 
room. As soon as she saw me, she held out her arms to me, 
and cried : ' It is Henri ! ' We embraced each other with a 
joy that one experiences but once in a lifetime. 

" The child was crying, and I examined it. It appeared to 
me to be strong and well. The nurse said to me : ' The child 
is doing well ; he can remain as he is for a few moments.' 
Madame cried then : ' Quick ! Quick ! the witnesses ! ' My 
valet de chambre had followed me in the confusion, and I said : 
1 Here is one.' ' He is of no use to me,' replied Madame, ' as 
he is in your service.' But she ordered him to light up every- 
thing and everywhere. 

" Madame de Vathaire had already set off to summon the 
accoucheur and the Faculty, and to awaken every one. I passed 
along a passage which led to the vestibule of the court. Two 
sentries were at the door, one belonging to the Royal Guard, 
the other to the National Guard. I called them, and told them 
to follow me. They hesitated, pleading their orders. ' Come,' 
said I, ' and save him who will one day be your King!' Although 
they did not understand me, they were impressed by the name 
of King, and, after some encouragement from a sergeant, they 
consented to follow me. The sergeant himself, whose name 
was Dauphinot, joined us. In order to make sure of them, I 

1 This Madame Lemoine was, by a singular coincidence, the daughter of the nurse 
who had attended the Empress Marie Louise at the time of the birth of the King of 
Rome. 



182 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

clutched their arms tightly. At this moment, the Duchesse de 
Reggio, who had been sent for, was descending the stairs. 
She beheld me in a short petticoat and black stockings, with 
my peignoir flying open, dragging along these two men, astounded 
but submissive, and laughingly assured me that it was a sight 
she should never forget so long as she lived. I took them in 
by the little narrow corridor, which they got through with 
difficulty. When we entered Madame's chamber, they were 
the first witnesses. I placed them in a corner of the room, and 
kept my eye on them." l 

Deneux, the accoucheur, had just arrived, putting the 
finishing touches to his toilette as he hurried in. " M. Deneux," 
said the duchess, " we have a prince ! I am very well. Do 
not trouble yourself about me, but take care of my child. Is 
there no danger in leaving him in this condition ? " Deneux, 
after a brief examination of the new arrival, whom he pro- 
nounced to be an exceptionally healthy child, reassured her 
upon this point. " In that case," rejoined the courageous 
mother, " let him be. ... I wish there to be no question about 
his being really mine." Then she directed that the Guards 
whom Madame de Gontaut had fetched, and two others who 
had also arrived, should be brought to her bedside. " Gentle- 
men," said she, " you are witnesses that this is a prince." 2 

To the Due d'Albufera, who arrived a few minutes later, she 
spoke in similar terms. " Come, Monsieur le Marechal, and pay 
your respects to the Due de Bordeaux ; we are waiting for you 
to bear witness that he is my son." And it was not until 
Suchet had seen with his own eyes that it was as she said that 
she would suffer Deneux to remove the child. 

The marshal could not refrain from expressing the admira- 
tion with which the princess's courage had inspired him. " The 
son of such a woman," he exclaimed, " cannot fail to be a great 
man." 3 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mimoires. 

2 Nettement, Mimoires stir Madame, la duchesse de Berri. 

3 Souvenirs du lieutenant-general vicomte de Reistt. The conduct of the Duchesse 
de Berry, which aroused so much admiration in the opposite sex, was criticised by 
certain members of her own on the ground of modesty ; and, in her Mhnoires, 
Madame de Boigne, who had little love for the princess, even goes so far as to 
accuse her of "shamelessness," and declares that the reports upon her maternal 
heroism, combined with those upon the trial of Queen Charlotte, " made the news- 
papers so disgusting for some days that it was impossible to leave them lying about." 
Most people, however, will be inclined to agree with Marmont, who, referring to 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 183 

Shortly afterwards, the King and the Royal Family 
arrived upon the scene. " God be praised ! " cried Louis XVIII. 
" You have a son ! " And he handed a magnificent cluster of 
diamonds to the mother. " That is for you, and this is for me," 
he added, taking the new-born child in his arms. 1 Then, calling 
for the clove of garlic and the Jurancon wine, he rubbed the 
boy's lips with the one and moistened them with a few drops of 
the other. The little prince endured this ordeal without flinch- 
ing. " He will be as valiant as his ancestor Henri IV.," said 
the King ; and the duchess exclaimed : " What a pity that 
I did not know the air of Jeanne d'Albret's chanson ! I should 
have had the courage to sing it, and then everything would 
have been just as it was at the birth of Henri IV." 

Meanwhile, the marshals, generals, and a number of other 
important persons had assembled in the salon, all impatience to 
see the little prince ; and Madame de Gontaut, accompanied by 
the witnesses and the great dignitaries, carried her precious 
charge to them. While they were admiring him, the Due 
d'Orleans, who had been summoned from the Palais-Royal, 
entered the room. The birth of the little prince, which seemed 
to destroy all hope of the younger branch of the Bourbons 
ascending the throne, must have been a bitter blow to Louis- 
Philippe, who could with difficulty dissemble his chagrin. For 
some moments, he regarded the Due de Bordeaux attentively, 
and then, turning to Suchet, exclaimed : " Monsieur le Marshal, 
I call upon you to declare what you have seen. Is this child 
really the son of the Duchesse de Berry ? " " Speak, Monsieur 
le Marechal, tell him all that you saw ! " cried Madame de 
Gontaut, angrily. The marshal testified most energetically to 
the legitimacy of the child, and added : " I swear it on my 
honour ! I am more certain that the Due de Bordeaux, here 
present, is the child of the Duchesse de Berry than I am that 
my son is the child of his mother." 2 After such irrefragable 

these criticisms, exclaims : '* Miserable objection ! before the interests of a dynasty 
and the repose of a nation such considerations should disappear ; and the Duchesse de 
Berry rose to the level of circumstances. She was sublime." 

1 Louis XVIII. was here following the tradition concerning the birth of Henri IV., 
according to which the King of Navarre had passed round his daughter's neck a 
long gold chain, and, taking the boy in his arms, had said: " Aco quez ton, et aco 
quez me." 

2 According to Nettement, Suchet's answer was : " I am as certain he is the son 
of the Duchesse de Berry as I am that the Due de Chartres is yours." To which 
Louis-Philippe replied : " That is quite sufficient for me, Monsieur le Marechal." 



1 84 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

testimony there was no more to be said, and, in the midst of 
a profound silence, Louis-Philippe departed to offer his con- 
gratulations to the Duchesse de Berry. 1 

At four o'clock, Monseigneur de Bombelles, Bishop of 
Amiens, first almoner to the duchess, administered private 
baptism to the little prince, and, half an hour later, the King, 
after again taking the child in his arms, returned to his apartments, 
and it was announced that her Royal Highness would take a 
little repose. 

The poor princess's repose was very speedily interrupted, for 
at five o'clock the cannon of the Invalides announced the glad 
tidings to the city, and at the discharge of the thirteenth gun 
thousands of persons rushed out into the streets and hurried 
towards the Tuileries. Soon an enormous crowd had collected 
before the Pavilion de Marsan, and the cheering was so deafen- 
ing, that the King returned and, ordering the windows to be 
opened, took the little prince in his arms and presented him to 
the people. 

The enthusiasm became indescribable. Notwithstanding 
the early hour, the streets were thronged with joyous crowds. 
People sang, shouted, and capered in their delight ; total 
strangers might be seen embracing one another ; flower-sellers 
gave away all the lilies in their baskets ; market-gardeners — 
usually the hardest of bargainers — made haste to sell the 
contents of their carts for anything that they would fetch, in 
order that they might be free to drive away and carry the great 
news to the surrounding villages. All Paris seemed to be 
Royalist that day. Few unacquainted with the French cha- 
racter could have found it possible to believe that a, few hours 
earlier the dynasty which could evoke such enthusiasm had 
seemed tottering to its fall. 

At six o'clock, the Duchesse de Berry gave orders that all 
the military who desired to see her son should be admitted, 
without distinction of rank. More than five hundred officers 
and soldiers hastened to present themselves, and filed past the 
little duke, their naive observations greatly diverting the 
princess, who talked familiarly with several of them. " Why am 
I so old ? " remarked a sergeant, sadly. " I shall never serve 
under his orders." " Console yourself, my friend," replied the 
princess ; " he will begin early." " I wish that he were eighteen 
1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 185 

years old," cried another, " so that he might pass us in review." 
A third, a grey-moustached veteran who had fought for the 
Bourbons in the Vendeen wars, regarded the child in silence, 
and solemnly gave him his blessing. 

At half-past ten, the marshals and the great dignitaries 
waited on the King in his cabinet to offer him their felicitations. 
At noon, a thanksgiving service, which was attended by Louis 
XVIII. and the Royal Family, was celebrated in the chapel of 
the Tuileries, and the Te Deum was sung. On his return, his 
Majesty and the princes stopped on the balcony of the Pavilion 
de l'Horloge, where their appearance was greeted with 
tremendous enthusiasm by the vast crowd assembled in the 
gardens. Stepping forward, Louis XVIII. made a sign that he 
wished to speak to the people. They understood, and in a strong 
and firm voice he addressed them as follows : " My children, 
your joy increases mine an hundredfold. A child is born to 
all of us. This child will one day be your father, and will love 
you as I love you, as all mine love you. We are all but one 
family, and you are all my children." Then, when the shouts 
of " Vive le Roi ! " which had greeted his words had somewhat 
subsided, he stretched out his hands, and the crowd, as if impelled 
by a single will, fell on their knees, to receive his paternal 
benediction. 

In the afternoon, the Pavilion de Marsan was thrown open 
to the public, and many thousands of the good citizens, mar- 
shalled in a queue, passed through the apartments and admired 
the little prince, who was in the charge of his nurse. Afterwards, 
Louis XVIII., holding the Due de Bordeaux in his arms, again 
appeared at one of the windows, and addressed a few words to 
the crowd. 

With the evening, the enthusiasm reached its height. The 
illuminations, both at the Tuileries and in the city, were magni- 
ficent, and even the poorest dwellings had contrived to contribute 
a lamp or two or a few humble candles towards the general 
effect. Troops assembled before the Pavilion de Marsan, and, 
on behalf of the garrison of Paris, presented the Duchesse de 
Berry with a luminous bouquet, consisting of a great number of 
rockets, which were all discharged at a given signal. " The 
noise was deafening, and the effect magnificent." 1 The princess 
who, during the afternoon, had wished to get up in order to 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mhnoires. 



1 86 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

appear at the window with her son and acknowledge the 
acclamations of the people, and had with difficulty been 
dissuaded by the doctors, insisted on her bed being moved close 
up to the open casement, so that she might watch the illumi- 
nations. She was delighted with the rockets and " clapped her 
hands with the enthusiasm of a child." She seemed so excited 
that one of the doctors who was in attendance became alarmed, 
and brought her a soothing draught. But she pushed it away, 
and pointing to the people below, who at sight of her had 
begun to cheer vociferously and wave their handkerchiefs, said, 
smiling : " That is the best restorative." 

All the theatres were thronged. At the Comedie-Franeaise, 
where the company was reinforced by that of the Opera, 
Athalie was performed with the choruses. The audience 
recognised in the little Joas, "en qui tout Israel reside" the 
image of the prince whose birth they were celebrating, and 
never had Racine's immortal work met with a more enthusiastic 
reception. At all the theatres couplets appropriate to the 
occasion were sung, the audience joining in the choruses. The 
cafes could not contain the crowds which flocked to them to 
drink to the health of the Due de Bordeaux ; and the demand for 
the wine of that name was so great that two hundred thousand 
bottles were reported to have been drunk in a single day. 
Many of the streets were converted into dancing-booths, in which 
dancing went on until the early hours of the following 
morning. 

The rejoicings continued without interruption for days. 
Deputations from every public body and from every trade in 
Paris waited upon the King and the Duchesse de Berry to offer 
their felicitations, not forgetting the market-porters and the 
charcoal-burners, who performed dances for the diversion of the 
princess before the windows of the Pavilion de Marsan, and 
were afterwards admitted two by two to admire the "child of 
miracle," as the little prince had been named. For, although 
the birth of a posthumous son is in no wise a miraculous event, 
the Royalists persisted in regarding that of the Due de Bor- 
deaux as an intervention of Providence in the destiny of the 
nation, as "a certain pledge of the altogether special mercy 
which watches over France," and waxed almost hysterical in 
their jubilation. One journal declared that any one must be an 
atheist who refused to see the finger of God in the prince's 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 187 

birth ; another termed the boy the " Messias of Legitimacy " ; a 
third — the Quotidienne — published a probably imaginary con- 
versation between a lad and a priest, in which the latter is made 
to say that, as Our Lord had died on a Friday to save the 
world, He had chosen that day for the birth of the prince who 
was to save France ; and a fourth apostrophised his Royal 
Highness in these terms: "August child, whose presence 
dissipates so many sorrows and alarms, thy coming was 
revealed to thy mother. She alone, in the midst of the general 
anxiety, showed iherself calm and confident. It is here 
that the protection of Heaven began to manifest itself," etc., 
etc. 1 

Another name which the Due de Bordeaux received was 
that of the " child of Europe," which was bestowed upon 
him by Monseigneur Macchi, the Papal Nuncio, when the 
Diplomatic Corps came to the Tuileries to tender its felicita- 
tions. " Sire," said he, " this child of sorrows, of memories, and 
of regrets, is also the child of Europe ; he is the presage and 
the guarantee of the peace and repose which must follow so 
many agitations." By which he meant that the birth of the 
little prince seemed to consolidate the throne of the Bourbons, 
and thus to put an end to the troubles and revolutions which 
had so long distracted Europe. 

The poets and chansonni&rs hastened to swell the chorus of 
rejoicing, and Victor Hugo, Beranger, and Lamartine vied with 
one another in the extravagance of their adulation. They were, 
however, easily surpassed by another bard, who published a 
Latin ode, in which he compared the Duchesse de Berry to the 
Virgin Mary : 

" Hcbc ccelo regina micat, micat altera lerris." 

Congratulatory addresses and deputations arrived from 

1 Journal de Paris, September 30, 1820. On the other hand, the principal 
organs of the Left, notably the Constitutionnel, made little effort to disguise their 
chagrin. The account of the auspicious event given by the journal in question on 
September 30 was very cold and laconic. It said not a word about the enthusiasm of 
the crowds at the Tuileries or of the rejoicings in the city, but criticised the arrange- 
ments made for the maintenance of order at the palace, and stated that " a company 
of the Swiss Guards had been stationed before the Pavilion de Marsan to ensure the 
repose [i.e. safety] of the princess." To atone for what it styled the " perfidious 
reticence " of its contemporary, the Journal des D'ebats of the following day consecrated 
the whole of its front page to a verbatim account of the official depositions made by 
the doctors, accoucheuse, and other witnesses of the birth of the Due de Bordeaux, 
which left very little to the imagination of its readers. 



188 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

every corner of the kingdom. 1 Presents flowed in from all 
sides. Every town and village in France gave itself up to 
rejoicing, and the festivities at Bordeaux almost rivalled in 
magnificence those of the capital. The King, delighted by the 
public enthusiasm, bestowed honours, amnesties, and favours with 
a lavish hand. No less than thirty-four cordons bleus were dis- 
tributed, the recipients including six of Napoleon's marshals, 
Macdonald, Marmont, Moncey, Oudinot, Suchet, and Victor ; 
a number of persons undergoing imprisonment for debt were set 
at liberty ; his Majesty gave a sum of 150,000 francs to discharge 
the debts owing by indigent fathers and mothers to the nursing 
bureau ; charged himself with the expense of monthly nurses 
for all male children of poor parents born in Paris on the same 
day as the Due de Bordeaux, and contributed the sum of two 
hundred francs towards the education of each of them. 

1 Among the provincial delegates was a patriarch of one hundred and sixteen, who 
had been a boy of ten at the time of the death of le Grand Monarque. " I have had 
the good fortune to see eight generations of the Bourbons," said he, as he gave the 
Due de Bordeaux his blessing. The Duchesse de Berry offered him a glass of the 
Jurancon wine, and presented him with a commemorative medal. 



CHAPTER XV 

Appearance of a libel, under the name of the Due d'Orleans, declaring the Due de 
Bordeaux to be a supposititious child — The Due d'Orleans hastens to disavow any 
connection with this publication — New popularity of the Monarchy — The Chateau of 
Chambord purchased by public subscription and presented to the little prince, in the 
name of the nation — The Duchesse de Berry, notwithstanding the birth of her son, 
continues to feel very keenly the loss of her husband — Baptism of the Due de 
Bordeaux — An alarming incident — The baptismal fetes — Pilgrimage of the Duchesse 
de Berry to Notre-Dame de Liesse. 

THE birth of the Due de Bordeaux, which seemed to 
assure for ever the Crown of France to the elder 
branch of the Bourbons, was too important an event 
for the passions which it wounded and the calculations which it dis- 
concerted not to endeavour to throw doubts upon its legitimacy. 
" It is true," observes Nettement, " that this birth, which had 
taken place under the eyes of witnesses drawn from every class 
of society, is the most authentic fact of modern history. But 
passions are blind, and the blind deny the authenticity of the 
sun." » 

Evidence of this was very speedily forthcoming. A 
pamphlet was printed in England, in which the writer, who had 
the audacity to borrow the name of no less a person than the 
Due d'Orleans, drew attention to the unusual, and, in his 
opinion, highly suspicious circumstances in which the event had 
taken place, and declared that they all pointed to a shameful 
conspiracy to foist upon the French nation a supposititious child. 

An attempt to import copies of this pamphlet into France 
was frustrated by the vigilance of the police, who had received 
timely warning of its publication ; but the Morning Chronicle, 
a journal which had a very pronounced weakness for sensational 
matter, hastened to reproduce it, and, through this medium, the 
libel succeeded in reaching Paris. 

The Due d'Orleans, highly indignant at the use which had 

1 Memoires sur Madame, la duchesse de Berri. 
189 



190 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

been made of his name, lost not a moment in seeking an 
audience of the King, in order to exculpate himself. He met, 
as might be expected, with a most frigid reception ; but he 
protested with so much energy against any suspicion of his 
complicity in this disgraceful publication that Louis XVIII. felt 
obliged to express his belief in his kinsman's sincerity. Never- 
theless, the incident did not tend to increase the favour with 
which the duke was regarded in Court circles. 

The appearance of this libel was not the only discordant 
note in the concert of adulations which was going on round the 
cradle of the Due de Bordeaux. There were some, even among 
the supporters of the Restoration, who believed that its only 
chance of permanency lay in the extinction of the reigning 
branch of the Bourbons and the passing of the Crown to the 
Orleans family. Madame de Boigne tells us that Pozzo di 
Borgo, on hearing the joy-bells ringing, exclaimed that they 
were tolling the death-knell of the House of Bourbon ; * a 
similar remark is attributed to the Duke of Wellington ; and 
the Comte de Lally wrote to Decazes : " I am daily more 
inclined to doubt whether it (the birth of the Due de Bordeaux) 
is the combination most desirable for France, for the Monarchy, 
and for this dynasty which is so dear to us ; whether the birth 
of a princess, who might have been betrothed in her cradle to 
that admirably-trained prince (the Due de Chartres), would not 
have been more advantageous to these great interests, more 
calculated to settle minds, to consolidate the Charter, to dissipate 
gloom, and to render conciliation necessary. The turn affairs 
are taking gives room for fear lest new discords may issue from 
this cradle which was to be the ark of the Covenant and the 
symbol of re-union." 2 

However, the forebodings of clear-sighted men such as these 
were shared by comparatively few. For the moment, the 
popular agitation had subsided as if by magic, the threatening 
clouds had disappeared, and the prospect seemed so fair that 
the Royalists might well have been excused their jubilation. 
Yet, had they paused to reflect, they might have recognised that 
this new-found popularity of the Bourbons — a popularity based 
on no surer foundation than sympathy for a young widow and 
a child who would never know a father's care — could not from 

1 Comtesse de Boigne, Mimoires. 

2 Cited by Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de 
Louis XV II I. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 191 

its very nature be permanent, unless it were nourished and 
sustained by a sincere effort to reconcile the Monarchy with the 
opinions held by the bulk of the nation ; and that, in default of 
such effort, the reaction which must surely follow would be the 
more violent now that the continuance of the reigning dynasty 
seemed assured. 

While the popular enthusiasm was still almost at its height, 
a proposal was made that the Chateau of Chambord should be 
purchased by public subscription and presented to the Due de 
Bordeaux, on behalf of the nation. 

This superb residence — one of the glories of Renaissance 
architecture — where Francois I. had received Charles V. on the 
great Emperor's visit to France in 1539; which had witnessed 
the first representations of two of Moliere's most delightful 
comedies, Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (1669), and le Bourgeois 
gentilhomme (1670) ; which had served as an asylum for 
the ex-King of Poland, Stanislaus Leczinski, and which had 
been the reward of Maurice de Saxe's victories in Flanders, 
had, at the Revolution, become national property, and had 
shared the fate of all the royal residences. The beautiful 
chapel which Stanislaus Leczinski had built was mutilated 
and defaced ; the sumptuous furniture sold to the second- 
hand dealers of the neighbourhood ; the magnificent Arras 
and Gobelin tapestries which decorated the apartments of 
Francois I. were burned, for the sake of the gold and silver 
they contained ; the very lead was stripped from j the roof. 
In 1809, Napoleon made a present of Chambord to Marechal 
Berthier, Prince de Wagram, who, however, had neither the will 
nor the means to undertake the cost of its restoration, and, in 
1 819, his widow obtained from Louis XVIII. a decree authorising 
her to sell it Then that society of ruthless speculators known 
as the Black Band marked it as their prey, and the chateau was 
about to disappear under the pick of the demolisher, when the 
Comte Adrien de Calonne, who happened to visit it in the 
course of a journey to the West of France, conceived the idea 
of preventing this act of vandalism by acquiring it for the Due 
de Bordeaux. 

From the antiquarian point of view, the proposal had much 
to recommend it ; but, from that of the Due de Bordeaux, it was 
not a little absurd, seeing that by the time the little prince was 
old enough to require a country-residence of his own, he would 



i 9 2 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

very likely have ascended the throne, when all the Crown 
chateaux would be at his disposal. Moreover, Chambord was 
situated at a distance from the Court, and the cost of its restora- 
tion and maintenance would be very heavy. For which reasons 
Louis XVIII. received the proposition somewhat coldly, while 
it was severely criticised by the Opposition, and furnished Louis 
Courrier with material for one of his most mordant pamphlets. 
However, it was taken up with enthusiasm by the Royalists, 
both in the capital and in the provinces, and, the King having 
been persuaded to yield to the wishes of the public, the money 
required was quickly subscribed ; and on March 5, 1821, Cham- 
bord was purchased at auction for 1,542,000 francs, independent 
of costs, and presented " in the name of France " to the little 
prince, who was, many years later, to take from it the title by 
which he is known to history. 

Notwithstanding the consolations which the birth of her 
little son had brought her, the Duchesse de Berry continued to 
feel most keenly the loss of her husband, and her journal, which 
stops abruptly on the day of the duke's assassination, and is 
not resumed until the beginning of the following year, contains 
abundant proof of the sincerity of her grief. Here, for instance, 
is one of several pathetic passages which have been published 
by the Vicomte de Reiset, in his admirable monograph on the 
princess : — 

" 1 January, 1821. — At half-past nine, I repair with Louise 
[Mademoiselle] in a carriage to the apartments of the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme, where Henri [the Due de Bordeaux] arrives, in a 
sedan-chair, in the arms of Madame de Gontaut. At ten o'clock, 
we go up to the apartments of the King, who gives the children 
superb presents. After their departure, I remain to breakfast 
with the King. But how painful for me, and how different from 
other years, has this breakfast been ! My Charles was no longer 
there, and, nevertheless, everything served to remind me of him. 
Every minute I imagined that I perceived him smiling kindly 
at me from the other end of the table. I kept turning my head, 
only to find that he was no longer in his place ! My heart was 
breaking, the tears came into my eyes, and, in spite of myself, I 
burst out crying." 

To perpetuate the memory of the Due de Berry, she had, 
some time before the birth of the little prince, expressed a wish 
that, if she bore a son, his entourage should be composed of the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 193 

same persons who had formed that of his father. To this the 
King had readily consented, and on the very day on which the 
Due de Bordeaux came into the world, Monsieur had sent for 
all these gentlemen, and announced to them that they were to 
resume about the person of the Due de Bordeaux the functions 
which they had exercised in the deceased prince's Household. 
" And I am very sure," he added, " that you will be as tenderly 
attached to the son as you were to the father." 

For many years to come, of course, these functions would 
be purely honorary, and both the little prince and his sister 
would remain under the control of Madame de Gontaut, gouver- 
nante of the Children of France. In order to relieve that 
energetic lady of a part of the increased responsibility which 
the arrival of the Due de Bordeaux had brought upon her, a 
sous-gouvernante, the Marquise de Foresta, was appointed. 
But, as the marchioness's sight was " so bad that neither eye- 
glass nor spectacles were of the least use to her," she proved 
more of a hindrance than an assistance. However, there she 
was, and there she evidently intended to remain ; and Madame 
de Gontaut had accordingly to make the best of the situation. 

The baptism of the Due de Bordeaux took place at Notre- 
Dame, on May 1, 1821, with the greatest magnificence. At 
noon, the royal procession, which consisted of thirty carriages, 
set out from the Tuileries, and proceeded to the cathedral by 
way of the Place du Carrousel, the Quai du Louvre, the Quai 
de l'Ecole, the Pont-Neuf, the Quai des Orfevres, the Rue 
March6-Neuf, and the Rue Neuve-Notre-Dame. The carriage 
of the Due de Bordeaux, drawn by eight magnificent horses 
and escorted by the pages and the heralds-at-arms, headed the 
procession. The little prince was carried by Madame de 
Gontaut, while Madame de Foresta had charge of Mademoiselle. 
The Duchesse d'Angouleme and the Duchesse de Berry rode 
in the King's carriage. An immense and enthusiastic crowd 
thronged the streets and squares along the route, and all the 
windows were decorated with white banners spangled with the 
fleurs-de-lis. 

At the door of the cathedral, the King was received by 
Mgr. de Quelen, coadjutor of the Cardinal de Perigord, the 
aged Archbishop of Paris, whose infirmities obliged him to 
remain in an armchair at the foot of the altar. The coadjutor 
harangued his Majesty, according to custom, and presented the 
o 



194 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

holy water. The procession then advanced up the nave. The 
Marquis de Dreux-Breze, Grand Master of the Ceremonies, led 
the way ; next came Madame de Gontaut, holding the Due de 
Bordeaux, so that every one might see him, and then the King, 
surrounded by the princes and princesses. The old monarch, 
now so crippled by the gout that he could only walk a few 
steps, occupied an armchair on wheels. The immense edifice 
presented a dazzling spectacle. All the pillars were draped 
with gold and silver gauze, and the tribunes were filled with 
ladies en grande parure and men in uniform. The King, having 
been conducted to his prie-Dieu, which had been placed in the 
middle of the choir, the Archbishop of Paris intoned the Veni 
Creator, after which a low Mass was celebrated by the coadjutor 
and the Te Deum sung. Then the princes and princesses of the 
Royal Family and of the Blood advanced to the steps of the 
altar, and the archbishop proceeded to baptize the little prince, 
who received the names of Henri Charles Ferdinand Dieudonne. 
Monsieur represented the King of the Two Sicilies, the god- 
father, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme replaced the Duchess of 
Calabria, Hereditary Princess of the Two Sicilies, as godmother. 

The baptism concluded, Madame de Gontaut mounted the 
altar-steps, and laid the Due de Bordeaux thereon for a moment. 
Then she raised him in her arms and presented him to the 
assembly, who greeted him with loud acclamations. On 
descending, she handed the child to his mother, who clasped 
him to her breast, " her countenance displaying the most lively 
emotion, which was shared by all present." * 

The Archbishop of Paris then addressed the King, declaring 
that " Religion confided this royal infant to his Majesty, to be 
taught, by his lessons and examples, what the Church had the 
right to expect from a Very Christian King." And the King, 
in his response, " begged the archbishop and all the clergy of 
France to pray that the little prince's life might be consecrated 
to the welfare of France and the glory of their holy religion." x 

At the conclusion of the religious ceremony, the baptismal 
certificate was drawn up, and signed by the King, the princes 
and princesses, the grand officers of the Crown, and the members 
of the Corps municipal, and at three o'clock the cortege returned 
to the Tuileries in the same order. 

The return journey, however, did not pass off without a very 

1 Jotirnal de Paris, May 2, 182 1. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 195 

unpleasant incident, which showed that the passions which had 
sought to prevent the little prince's arrival in the world were 
still active. 

As Madame de Gontaut and her charge were leaving the 
Tuileries for Notre-Dame, a man approached the carriage, 
handed the gouvernante a letter, and immediately disappeared. 
Madame de Gontaut opened it, and read as follows : — 

" Urgent and important. Be on your guard when you approach 
the Pont-Neuf, where there is to be a halt, and then take care of 
the prince." 

Much alarmed, Madame de Gontaut called the officer of the 
Guards in command of the escort, and handed him the note, 
saying, " This concerns you." The officer read it, and, laying 
his hand on his sword, replied confidently, " You need have no 
fear." 

Madame de Gontaut, however, was far from reassured, and 
the nearer the procession approached the Pont-Neuf, the more 
anxious did she become. The halt at the bridge was to allow 
the market-women to present a bouquet to the Due de Bordeaux, 
and to deliver an address to the King, "during which," says 
the gouvernante, " I held Monseigneur close to my heart, which 
was beating violently, and gave these ladies a view of my broad 
shoulders." However, the critical moment passed without any 
occasion for alarm. 

Nothing, in point of fact, happened until the end of the 
return journey, at the moment when the carriage containing the 
little prince was entering the courtyard of the Tuileries. 

" As the officer of the Guards," writes Madame de Gontaut, 
" was unable to pass under the wicket at the same time as the 
carriage without running the risk of being crushed, I had placed 
myself, as was my custom, in the middle of the carriage-window, 
in order to protect Monseigneur, when I received a blow on the 
shoulder which made me jump. I put up my hand, and when 
I withdrew it, there was a blood-stain on my glove. Delighted at 
having saved Monseigneur by my precautions, I said, loftily : 
' I am wounded ; he is saved ! ' And I added, laughing : ' I 
shall have the cross of Saint-Louis ; that is the object of my 
ambition.' 

" On alighting at the Pavilion de Marsan, I had a search 
made for the object that had struck me. They found an 
unsigned petition, written on parchment, rolled up into the form 



196 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

of a horn, at the end of which was a small and very sharp piece 
of iron. The woman who threw it had been observed, but, as 
this method of presenting placets was customary, no attention 
had been paid to it." 

Splendid fetes followed the baptism of the little prince. At 
night, the whole city was illuminated ; the display of fireworks 
was magnificent, and more than ten thousand packets of bonbons 
were distributed among the enthusiastic crowds. On the follow- 
ing day, the Municipal Council gave a grand fete at the Hdtel de 
Ville, which was attended by Monsieur, the Due and Duchesse 
d'Angouleme, and the Duchesse de Berry. It began with a 
banquet in the Salle Saint-Jean, which was followed by an 
intermede, the words of which were by Alissan de Chazet and the 
music by Berton and Boi'eldieu ; transparencies representing 
the Due de Bordeaux lying as in a cradle in the vessel of the 
Arms of Paris, the triumphal arrival of the Duchesse de Berry at 
Marseilles, in 1816, and a view of Palermo, where her girlhood 
had been passed ; cantatas executed by the combined forces of 
the Opera and the Opera-Comique, and a ball, to which five 
thousand invitations had been issued and which did not terminate 
until seven o'clock in the morning. 

On the following day, the Duchesse de Berry, with Monsieur 
and her children, made a sort of triumphal progress through the 
principal streets of the capital, in an open calash, being every- 
where received with the utmost enthusiasm. On the 4th and 5th, 
there were gala performances in the theatre of the Tuileries, and, 
on the 6th, the rejoicings terminated with a magnificent fete at 
the Odeon, given by the general officers of the garrison of Paris, 
which consisted of a play written for the occasion, a cantata 
entitled Dieu Va donne, a ball, and " an excellent and abundant 
supper." The front of the boxes was hung with silver gauze, 
sewn with the crosses of Saint-Louis and the Legion of Honour, 
and weapons and flags were displayed on all sides. Every one 
of the four thousand guests present was loud in praise of the 
splendid hospitality of their hosts, but, as a matter of fact, the 
gallant officers scarcely deserved the congratulations which 
were so freely showered upon them. Their enthusiasm for the 
Royal Family, it would appear, stopped short of putting their 
hands in their pockets ; and Marechal Marmont, the military 
governor of Paris, who had conceived the idea of the fete, had 
experienced considerable difficulty in persuading them to 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 197 

consent to it. Learning of this, the King had offered to bear 
half the expense, in his capacity as Colonel-General of the 
Guard, and the officers of his Household had also contributed, so 
that all that was required of the parsimonious generals was one 
day's pay. 1 

It will be remembered that the Duchesse de Berry had 
vowed a pilgrimage to the shrine of Notre-Dame de Liesse in 
the event of her bearing a son, and on May 20, accompanied by 
her almoner, Mgr. de Bombelles, and a numerous suite, she left 
Paris to accomplish it. On the 22nd, she arrived at Laon, where 
all the population of the neighbourhood had congregated to 
welcome her. The whole city was draped with white flags, and 
the enthusiasm was tremendous. The prefect and the municipal 
authorities received her at the foot of the hill which crowns the 
town. The princess entered an open carriage, and having 
reviewed the cuirassiers of the Regiment de Berry, who were 
quartered at Laon, drove to the Prefecture, where she received 
several deputations, including one from Saint-Quentin, which 
came to present her with cambrics and other products of the 
industries of that town. After having visited the celebrated 
cathedral, the duchess continued her journey to Liesse, where 
she arrived at seven o'clock the same evening. " She went at 
once to the parish-church to hear Mass and receive Communion," 
writes one who was present. " Twenty young girls performed 
the same duty. The princess was dressed in a simple white 
gown, with a veil on her head. After communicating, she knelt 
down again at her prie-Dieu, which was placed in the middle of 
the choir. There she was again assailed by the memory of 
her eternal sorrow, and her tears flowed freely. All who were 
in the church were as deeply moved as she. The spectacle of 
a young princess, widowed by an atrocious crime, weeping at 
the foot of the altar for the object of her affection, returning 
thanks to Heaven for the consolation it had accorded her, and 
imploring for her son the protection of the Blessed Virgin, 
was the most striking and the most affecting that can be 
conceived." 2 

Before returning to Paris, the Duchesse de Berry visited 
several places of interest in the neighbourhood, including the 

1 Memoires du Markka! Marmont. 

2 Letter of the Marquis de Montreton to the Baron de Fremilly, in Imbert de 
Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de Louis XVIII. 



198 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

ruins of the ancient chateau of Courcy and the mirror manu- 
factory at Saint-Gobain. It was in the course of her visit to the 
manufactory, where a mirror was made specially for her, that one 
of the workmen perpetrated a pun which had a great success. 
" Tout est de glace ici, Madame" said he, " tout excepti nos 
cceurs ." x 

1 The word glace is used to denote both mirror and ice. 



CHAPTER XVI 

The Duchesse de Berry resumes the habits of the early days of her married life — 
Kindness and generosity of the princess — Method which she adopts to extend her 
patronage as widely as possible among the tradespeople of the capital — Her visit to 
Mont Dore — She begins to entertain again at the Pavilion de Marsan — The Bourbons 
triumphant in Naples and Spain, as well as in France — Situation at the Tuileries — 
Louis XVIII. and his favourites — Madame du Cayla — Her history — Sosthene de 
la Rochefoucauld urges her "to essay the role of Esther to the Ahasuerus of 
Louis XVIII." — Her first interview with the King — Infatuation of Louis XVIII. 
for her — He presents her with the Pavilion of Saint-Ouen — Influence which she 
exercises over the King — Her relations with the Duchesse de Berry — Visit of the 
duchess to Dieppe — Her reception — Her first " dip " — Illness of Louis XVIII. — 
Heroic fortitude of the King, who, despite his sufferings, continues to discharge his 
official duties — Madame du Cayla persuades him to send for his confessor — Adminis- 
tration of the Sacraments — Death of Louis XVIII. 

THE time had now arrived for the Duchesse de Berry to 
resume the habits of the early days of her married 
life — the dinners with the King and the other 
members of the Royal Family, the evening parties in the 
Duchesse d' Angouleme's apartments, her weekly receptions, and 
all her Court duties. Remembering how anxious her husband 
had been that she should cultivate a taste for serious occupation, 
she also re-engaged the masters and professors whom he had 
recommended to her, and a part of her mornings was always 
set apart for lessons in music, painting, drawing, or modern 
languages. Her talent for music, Madame de Gontaut tells us, 
was really remarkable, for, though she did not know a note, she 
possessed a wonderful ear, and an air once heard was never 
forgotten. 1 

Under an appearance perhaps a little frivolous, the princess 
had concealed sterling qualities. These had been revealed in 
her by the sufferings which she had experienced. Knowing 
what sorrow was herself, she could feel for the misfortunes of 
others, and her kindness and generosity were beyond all praise. 
She dispensed very large sums in charity ; she was accessible to 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mhnoires. 
199 



200 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

every one ; she read carefully every petition that was presented 
to her, and, if she deemed it worthy of her interest, did all in her 
power to assure its success. Aware of the immense importance 
attached by the tradesmen of Paris to the royal patronage, and 
that a visit from one of the princesses was often sufficient to 
confer a sort of brevet of elegance and bon ton upon even a com- 
paratively humble establishment, she was at pains to distribute 
hers as widely as possible, and scarcely a day passed without 
her entering several shops and making numerous purchases. As, 
however, it was, of course, impossible for her to pay every 
establishment where her presence was solicited a personal visit, 
she found means to console the tradespeople whom she was 
compelled to neglect by sending her carriage to stand before 
their doors. The sight of the Duchesse de Berry's well-known 
blue liveries outside a shop often proved as valuable an adver- 
tisement for the proprietor as if her Royal Highness herself 
had been within, and many a worthy tradesman struggling to 
establish a fashionable connection had reason to bless the 
princess's thoughtfulness. 

We can scarcely wonder that a young princess whose only 
object seemed to be to please should have enjoyed an immense 
popularity. This popularity was far from being confined to the 
Parisians. Wherever she appeared, indeed, her tact and affability 
seemed to have gained all hearts. When, early in September 
1 82 1, she went to Mont Dore, in Auvergne, to drink the waters, 
she delighted the people by assuming the dress of an Auvergnat 
peasant — flannel chemise, short skirt, worsted stockings, a long 
veil for the face, and a shawl to cover the head — and riding on 
horseback along the dangerous mountain-paths. Her ladies had 
perforce to follow her example, not a little to their disgust, for 
flannel chemises and abbreviated skirts were not a kind of attire 
to appeal very forcibly to a fashionable dame who patronised 
the ateliers of Leroy, nor were the very indifferent steeds pro- 
vided for their use calculated to reassure an inexperienced 
horsewoman. When, in the course of an expedition to the 
Chateau de Murol, poor Madame de Bouille found herself lying 
in the road for the third time that morning ; and when, on the 
following day, she and Madame de Casteja had the misfortune 
to encounter a swarm of wasps, and their steeds, resenting the 
attention of these vindictive insects, threatened to bolt with 
them into Lac de Guerri, it is to be feared that both ladies 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 201 

must have felt that the coveted post of dame po?iv accompagner 
to the Duchesse de Berry had its drawbacks. 

At the end of September, the princess returned to Paris, 
where, greatly to the satisfaction of Society, she reopened her 
salons and began to entertain again in a quiet way. The little 
parties she gave were greatly appreciated, for they presented 
a pleasing contrast to those of her sister-in-law, which always 
had about them a political flavour. The Duchesse de Berry 
very rightly considered that politics do not make for gaiety, 
and, at the Pavilion de Marsan, they were rigorously tabooed, 
and the conversation was all of Art, the theatre, or the toilette. 
The princess, indeed, had a gentle way of intimating that she 
had no room for bores in her salon, and, if by chance any of 
her guests were so ill-advised as to embark upon a political 
discussion, she would interrupt them by placing a finger to 
her lips. 

In these closing years of Louis XVIII.'s reign, it seemed as 
though Fortune, repenting of having tried the young princess 
so cruelly, was reserving for her her choicest smiles. The 
mother of two healthy and charming children, beloved by her 
relatives, popular with the Court, adored by the people, every- 
thing contributed to console her for the irreparable loss she 
had sustained ; nothing seemed to indicate that the future held 
for her yet further trials. Everywhere the Bourbons were 
triumphant. At Naples, her grandfather Ferdinand I. was, 
by the aid of an Austrian army, replaced upon the throne of 
the Two Sicilies. In France, the insurrection of the Carbonari 
in the West was suppressed without difficulty, and the Restora- 
tion seemed so firmly established that the Government was 
able to extend a helping hand to the Spanish Bourbons ; and, 
as the result of the Due d'Angouleme's military promenade 
across the Pyrenees, Ferdinand VII. returned from his virtual 
imprisonment at Cadiz to Madrid, and ruled for the rest of his 
worthless life as the most absolute of sovereigns. 

Very singular was the situation at the Tuileries during this 
period. The dissensions, the stormy scenes, between Louis 
XVIII. and his relatives were things of the past. No longer 
did Madame sulk and Monsieur fume; no longer did the 
angry tones of his Majesty's sonorous voice resound through 
the palace. Harmony complete and permanent had been re- 
established in that august circle. Little by little, the old King, 



202 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

who had once so jealously guarded his authority from any 
encroachment on the part of his family, was surrendering it to 
his brother ; little by little, a reactionary policy was succeeding 
the Liberalism of the Decazes regime. It was a woman who 
had brought this about — a woman, who, in the words of one 
of her admirers, had "despoiled the King of his own ideas, 
compelled him to surrender to her, so to speak, his intellect, 
his memory, all his faculties, and all his affections." 

A favourite, as we have said elsewhere, was a necessity of 
Louis XVIII.'s existence. Obliged by his infirmities to forgo 
all the pleasures of an active life, he found his chief solace in 
conversation ; and the need of some one who possessed the 
art of cheering his long hours of ennui and suffering, and who 
could be the recipient of all his confidences and secrets, was 
ever present with him. Upon such — whether man or woman — 
he was accustomed to bestow a wealth of affection which would 
have been highly ludicrous, if it had not been so pathetic. In 
his Majesty's eyes, the object of his attachment could do no 
wrong; any attack upon him was almost tantamount to high 
treason, and the greater the jealousy he excited, the more 
precious did his friendship become, and the more did the King 
delight in overwhelming him with honours and benefits. It 
was thus that he had loved Madame de Balbi, until the discovery 
of her too intimate relations with Archambaud de Perigord 
had come to " destroy all his happiness " ; the Comte d'Avaray, 
until death had interrupted their friendship, and Blacas and 
his " dear son " Decazes, until political exigencies had compelled 
him to part with them. And it was thus that he loved the lady 
of whom we are now about to speak. 

It would appear to have been some time during the year 
1 8 19, when the assassination of the Due de Berry had not yet 
furnished the Ultra-Royalists with the pretext for the clamour 
which was to bring the political career of Decazes to an untimely 
end, that it occurred to Sosthene de la Rochefoucauld, son 
of the Due de Doudeauville, and one of the most intriguing 
members of that party, that the surest means of ruining their 
enemy would be to have recourse to the method which had 
so often proved effective against King's favourites in former 
days, namely, to raise up a rival to him in the royal favour. 

La Rochefoucauld had for mistress, according to some 
writers, for friend only, according to others, a certain Comtesse 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 203 

du Cayla, nee Zoe Talon, a member of an old family of the 
Parisian magistracy. Her father, Omer Talon, had been advo- 
cate and civil lieutenant to the Chatelet at the time of the 
Revolution, in which capacity he was concerned in the trial 
of the unfortunate Marquis de Favras, and was commonly 
believed to have rendered considerable service to Louis XVI 1 1., 
then Comte de Provence, by the suppression of certain documents 
which would have gravely compromised his Royal Highness. 
Forced to emigrate during the Terror, Omer Talon returned 
on the establishment of the Directory, and for some time acted 
as a secret agent of the princes ; but, his intrigues having been 
discovered, he was arrested and thrown into prison. Here he 
spent three years, when he was set at liberty, thanks to the 
intercession of his daughter, who had been educated at Madame 
Campan's famous seminary at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and had 
there formed a close friendship with Napoleon's step-daughter, 
Hortense de Beauharnais, the future Queen of Holland, which 
she was now to turn to good account. 

On the restoration of the Bourbons, the recollection of her 
father's services and her marriage with the Comte du Cayla, a 
nobleman of Tuscan origin attached to the Household of the 
old Prince de Conde, procured Zoe Talon admission to the 
Court, where she soon attained a certain prominence among the 
ladies of the ultra-Royalist party. 

In her married life, however, Madame du Cayla was far from 
happy, and eventually a separation between her and her 
husband was arranged. The fault would appear to have been 
on the latter's side ; at any rate, the old Comtesse du Cayla, 
who had at one time been lady-in-waiting to the Comtesse de 
Provence, warmly espoused her daughter-in-law's cause, and, 
just before she died, gave her a letter to Louis XVIII., in which 
she besought his Majesty's protection for the countess and her 
two children, of whose custody her husband was threatening to 
deprive her. 

Madame du Cayla was not strictly speaking beautiful, 
neither was she in her first youth, being in fact thirty- 
five ; but she was eminently seductive, tall and graceful, with 
jet black hair, which set off to advantage the ivory whiteness of 
her skin, expressive brown eyes, perfect teeth, and a very sweet 
voice. Moreover, she was intelligent, witty, and amiable ; in a 
word, quite irresistible when she wished to please. 



204 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

•A sort of instinctive prevision of Madame du Cayla's 
destiny came to her devoted friend Sosthene de la Rochefou- 
cauld. " It seemed to me," he writes, " that Madame du Cayla 
was the only person who could succeed in dissipating the 
illusions with which Louis XVIII. was surrounded, and which it 
was necessary to destroy, for his honour, his happiness, and for 
that of his family and France." * He accordingly represented to 
the lady that religion and monarchy were both tottering to 
their fall, owing to the King's infatuation for, a Minister who, 
through blindness, love of popularity, or ambition, was con- 
tinually pushing him to fatal concessions to the revolutionary 
spirit ; that his Majesty's heart constituted one half of his 
policy, and that he would suffer no one to advise him but those 
whom he loved, and that the only hope of averting the catas- 
trophe with which France was threatened was that some noble 
and disinterested woman might be found to remove from the 
royal eyes the bandage which blinded them. Then, after 
citing several instances of the immense influence over royalty 
which had been exercised by women in past times, he ended by 
proposing to Madame du Cayla that she should essay the role 
of Esther to the Ahasuerus of Louis XVIII., and " insinuate 
herself by affection into his heart, and by good sense into his 
mind." The necessity of seeking his protection against her 
husband would furnish her with an admirable pretext for 
soliciting an audience, and occasions for further interviews 
would not be difficult to find. 

Madame du Cayla, if we are to believe La Rochefoucauld, 
repulsed with indignation this proposition, reproached him with 
" having confounded her with those bold, ambitious, or hypo- 
critical women who avail themselves of their vices, or even of 
their virtues, to seduce or govern the hearts of kings," and bade 
him, under pain of losing her friendship, never to speak of the 
matter- again. However, a little reflection served to modify 
this first repugnance, and the audience upon which such great 
hopes were based was solicited and immediately accorded. 

Madame du Cayla appeared before the King in the role of a 
persecuted woman — and, incidentally, in a toilette every detail 
of which had been the subject of the most careful consideration 
— handed him tlie letter which her mother-in-law had given her, 
and, throwing herself at his feet, implored him, with tears in her 

1 Memoires de la Rochefoucauld. 




ZOE TALON, COMTESSE DU CAY LA 

FROM THE PAINTING BV LOUIS DAVID 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 205 

eyes, to extend his protection to herself and her children. His 
Majesty was touched ; he raised her up, made her sit down by his 
side, and conversed with her with the utmost graciousness. The 
charms of her conversation pleased him as much as the attrac- 
tions of her person ; and not only did he readily promise that 
her children should remain under her care and that her in- 
dependence should be safeguarded, but he prolonged the 
audience far beyond the customary time, and, at its conclusion, 
informed her that he would always be willing to receive her 
whenever she had any request to make to him. 

This interview was succeeded, at a discreet interval, by a 
second, which more than confirmed the favourable impression 
which Louis XVIII. had formed of the lady. Others followed, 
and gradually the King began to take so much pleasure in 
Madame du Cayla's society that he did not wait for her to 
solicit an audience, but suggested it himself. 

Whether Madame du Cayla would ever have succeeded in 
accomplishing the mission which La Rochefoucauld had marked 
out for her, if the storm which followed the assassination of the 
Due de Berry had not swept Decazes from her path, may be 
doubted. But the Minister's removal immensely facilitated her 
operations. Deprived of his favourite, the lonely old King 
naturally felt more than ever the need of congenial companion- 
ship, and surrendered himself entirely to the charms of his new 
friend. The interviews became more frequent and more 
prolonged. Then, every Wednesday afternoon was set apart 
for the reception of Madame du Cayla, on which occasions his 
Majesty gave strict order that he was on no account to be 
disturbed. 1 Finally, Louis XVIII.'s admiration for her was 
transformed into a veritable infatuation. She appeared at the 
Tuileries two or three times a week, and, in the intervals 
between these visits, an active correspondence was exchanged, 
the King often writing several times a day, and the lady, care- 
fully " coached " by La Rochefoucauld, replying in terms which 

1 On Wednesday evening, the King, in giving the countersign, which consisted 
of the name of a person and the name of a place, invariably selected those which 
recalled his countess. We read in the Journal of the Marechal de Castellane, under 
date April 6, 1823: "I was on guard at the chateau; the King gave for the 
countersign : Sainte-Zoe, La Rochelle. When the moment came for me to give the 
countersign to the officers on duty, they observed : • That is correct ; it is Wednesday. ' 
Zoe is the baptismal name of Madame du Cayla, who has an estate near La Rochelle ; 
Wednesday is the day on which the King sees her. Zoe is, in consequence, the 
countersign every Wednesday." 



206 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

delighted the heart of her senile admirer. 1 " Madame d'Henin 
told me," writes the Duchesse Victor de Broglie, under date 
September 21, 1821, " that the King decidedly has a passion for 
Madame du Cayla ; he receives her in private three hours at a 
time ; when he drives along the quay, she is at the window of 
her house ; he puts his head out of the carriage-window to look 
lovingly at her." 2 

It must not be supposed that there was anything immoral in 
this intimacy. The age and infirmities of Louis XVIII., as 
Lamartine expresses it, had " purified in him the inclinations of 
Nature," 3 and precluded all idea of gallantry ; and the most 
austere members of the ultra-Royalist party, and even the Abbe 
Liautard, the director of the countess's conscience, regarded 
the progress of the affair with the warmest approval. 

It was, of course, the role of Madame du Cayla to profess 
the utmost disinterestedness. In spite of the modesty of the 
lady's fortune, La Rochefoucauld assures us that the King had 
all the difficulty in the world to persuade her to accept anything 
at his hands. When, at the beginning of their relations, he 
offered her a roll of one hundred banknotes of one thousand 
francs each, she declined the gift almost with indignation. It 
was the same when he begged her acceptance of a magnificent 
parure of diamonds, which he had had made expressly for her. 
" Sire," said she, as she handed the casket back, " I am perhaps 
the only person in your kingdom who is unable to accept that 
from your Majesty." 

The countess, needless to say, lost nothing by these refusals, 
for the old monarch, delighted by such an answer, had recourse 
to the most gallant subterfuges to prevent her from repulsing 
his gifts. " My child," said he one day, " I must give you a 
portfolio in which to lock up any of my letters which you may 
wish to keep. And the portfolio which he offered her was 
thickly encrusted with diamonds. Then, one evening, when 
she came to see him for a few moments on her way to a ball 
at the Pavilion de Marsan, his Majesty, on the pretence of read- 
justing a rebellious curl of her coiffure, surreptitiously attached 

1 The Baron de Vitrolles declares/in his Mimoires, that this correspondence, which 
would undoubtedly throw much light/ on the events of the last years of Louis XVIII. 's 
reign, had been religiously preserved by Madame du Cayla, and that she intended to 
publish it after her death ; but no trace of it has ever been discovered. 

2 Imbert de Saint- Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Cour de Louis XVIII. 

3 Histoire de la Restauration. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 207 

to her hair a magnificent diamond-spray, which is reported 
to have been worth two hundred thousand francs ; and it was 
not until she arrived at the ball, and all her friends crowded 
round to express their admiration of the jewel, that she learned 
of its presence. On another occasion, the King asked her 
acceptance of a Bible, a present which, of course, it was impos- 
sible for her to refuse. The sacred volume arrived, magnificently 
bound in morocco, with her Arms in gold on the cover, and 
embellished with one hundred and fifty superb illustrations. 
But each of these illustrations, instead of being protected by 
tissue paper, was covered by a banknote for one thousand francs. 

The climax of the royal munificence was reached, however, 
when Louis XVIII. presented Madame du Cayla with the 
sumptuous pavilion which he had built at Saint-Ouen, on the 
site of the little chateau where he had promulgated the 
Declaration of May 2, 18 14. The favourite for some time 
refused to accept so magnificent a gift, and her scruples were 
only overcome when the King said to her, pathetically : " My 
child, reflect that Saint-Denis is not far from Saint-Ouen ; you 
will go there to pray for me ! " 

Nothing, we are told, could exceed the elegance and luxury 
of this abode. " Every detail showed minute care. The gutter 
spouts were of polished marble, and the banisters of the attic 
staircase of mahogany ; nothing had been overlooked, and it 
was obvious that artists and workmen had been employed 
regardless of expense. The cleverest painters had been com- 
missioned to decorate the walls. But all this luxury was in 
good taste and harmonious, and produced the effect of noble 
simplicity." 1 

Madame du Cayla's reign at Saint-Ouen was inaugurated 
by a splendid fete, which was attended by the Ministers, the 
Diplomatic Corps, and all fashionable Paris. Mgr. de Frayssinous, 
Bishop of Hermepolis, solemnly consecrated the chapel. To the 
sounds of a cantata executed by the chorus of the Opera, a 
portrait of Louis XVI 1 1., by Gerard, in the act of signing the 
Declaration of Saint-Ouen, was unveiled in the library. A 
vaudeville was performed in the theatre of the chateau, after 
which the ch&telaine emerged from a recess, crowned with a 
civic crown, and was proclaimed as the heroine of the Charter. 
And between four and five hundred guests sat down to a banquet, 

1 Comtesse de Boigne, Memoires. 



208 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

during which the Papal Nuncio, Monseigneur Macchi, and the 
austere Abbe Liautard, Madame du Cayla's confessor, " relieved 
one another in the task of praising the Christian virtues of their 
charming hostess." * 

Gradually, Madame du Cayla succeeded in establishing 
almost as complete an ascendency over the mind of Louis 
XVIII. as she had over his heart, and used it without scruple 
in the interests of the ultra-Royalist party. " From the day," 
writes Pasquier, "when M. Decazes had been taken from him 
by proceedings which had wounded his heart, his self-esteem, 
and his regard for the royal dignity, the King had only occupied 
himself with business so that it should not be said that he had 
given it up." 2 Weighed down beneath the burden of his infirmi- 
ties, he had begun to fall into a state of apathy which put him 
at the mercy of those who resolutely applied themselves to the 
task of governing him. Occasionally, a flicker of the old spirit 
would reveal itself, but it was speedily quenched ; all he 
desired now was peace and quiet, and Madame du Cayla would 
give him none until he had surrendered to her will. To her 
influence may be traced the fall of the high-minded and patriotic 
Due de Richelieu, who had refused to lend himself to the plans 
of Monsieur and his friends ; 3 the nomination of Vill£le as Prime 
Minister ; the ignominious dismissal of Chateaubriand from the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the acceptance by the King 
of the Septennial Bill of 1824 and other reactionary measures. 

The attitude of the different members of the Royal Family 
towards the favourite is interesting. Monsieur, although he 
does not appear to have been a party to the plot woven around 
his helpless brother, at any rate in its early stages, did not 
scruple to take advantage of it, and repeatedly urged Madame 
du Cayla to " ignore the things which spite and folly might say 
against her, and to enjoy in peace the noble use which she was 
making of the confidence and affection of the King." 4 The 
Duchesse d'Angouleme, on the other hand, could not bring 

1 Comtesse de Boigne, Memoires. 
- Pasquier, Mimoires. 

3 The King's anxiety to secure the resignation of the Richelieu Ministry was so 
great, that twice during the evening of December 14, 1 821, he wrote to the duke 
requesting that the document announcing it should be sent for his signature. Accord- 
ing to Madame de Boigne, it was afterwards known that he had promised Madame du 
Cayla that the resignation should be handed to her before she went to bed. 

4 Lamartine, Histoire de la Restanration. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 209 

herself to countenance a lady to whom gossip had attributed 
in her youth at least one unorthodox connection, and not only 
treated her with coldness, but expressed her displeasure at the 
intimacy which existed between her dame d 1 atoms, Madame de 
Choisy, and the favourite. At the same time, we may venture 
to doubt if, at heart, Madame altogether regretted an intrigue 
which, however unworthy it may have been, had put an end 
to the dissensions in the Royal Family and was doing so much 
to promote the interests of the party whom she honoured by 
her protection. 

As for the Duchesse de Berry, less fastidious in her choice 
of friends than her sister-in-law, she appears to have been on 
very good terms with the favourite, though she did not at all 
approve of the King's habit of referring to Madame du Cayla, 
even in the presence of his family, as " his third daughter," which 
seemed to place that lady on a footing of equality with the 
Duchesse d'Angouleme and herself; and, on one occasion, she 
expressed her sentiments upon the matter rather pointedly. 
However, the relations between the two ladies were, on the 
whole, excellent ; indeed, Madame du Cayla appears to have 
entertained a real affection for the princess, since she remained 
faithful to her cause after the Revolution of 1830, corresponded 
with her frequently, and even intrigued on her behalf. 

Towards the end of July 1824, the Duchesse de Berry left 
Paris on a visit to Dieppe, a place with which her name was 
destined to be closely associated. This famous old Norman 
town had first been brought into prominence as a bathing 
resort by Queen Hortense, who for a number of years had been 
in the habit of spending part of every summer there. Up to 
that time, sea-bathing had found little favour with the French, 
except in the case of the mentally afflicted or persons threatened 
with hydrophobia. The latter were, of course, few in number, 
but in summer-time along the coast it was no uncommon thing 
to catch sight of some unfortunate lunatic spluttering and 
struggling in the arms of stalwart fishermen, who plunged him 
without mercy beneath the waves. The Queen of Holland, 
however, was too prominent a Society leader for her example 
not to be widely followed, and, even after the fall of the Empire, 
fashionable Paris continued to come to Dieppe, for the resort 
had become very popular with visitors from the other side of 



2io A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the Channel, and under the Restoration English customs were 

the mode. 

In the afternoon of July 22, the Duchesse de Berry arrived 
at Rouen, where she met with an enthusiastic reception, and was 
presented with a piece of wood mounted in silver, which had 
been taken from the foundations of the ancient bridge built 
by the Empress Mathilde, in 11 50. She remained a week in 
the Norman capital, visiting with her usual indefatigable energy 
all the places of interest in the town and the environs, among 
them the Abbey of Jumieges, where she was shown the remains 
of the tombs of the sons of Clovis and of Saint-Philibert, the 
founder of the Abbey, and the spot where Agnes Sorel, mistress 
of Charles VIL, had lain until the revolutionary mob had 
desecrated her grave. 

On July 31, the princess made her entry into Dieppe, being 
received at the entrance to the town by a deputation of fish- 
wives in their picturesque costume ; while, a little farther on, 
a party of young ladies presented themselves to beg her 
acceptance of the model of a ship exquisitely carved in ivory, 
which bore the name of Saint-Ferdinand, in memory of the 
vessel which had brought her to France in 18 16. The mayor 
harangued the Duchesse de Berry, reminding her of the devotion 
that the town had shown for Henri IV. in 1589, and the affection 
which that monarch had always testified for the Dieppois ; and 
the princess replied in a tactful little speech, in which she assured 
him that she should imitate her ancestor in his love for them. 
Then, after visiting the citadel, she was conducted to the Hotel 
de Ville, where apartments had been prepared for her, her 
ladies being accommodated in a large house hard by, which 
had been connected with the Hotel de Ville by a wooden 
gallery. 

The princess's first " dip " was attended by great ceremony. 
The inspector of the baths, dressed as though he were about to 
proceed to a ball, offered her his white-gloved hand and con- 
ducted her several paces into the water ; and her entry into the 
sea was proclaimed to all the country round by a discharge of 
cannon. The next day, however, her Royal Highness, much to 
her relief, was permitted to dispense with the services of this 
worthy gentleman and to disport herself in the waves like a 
simple mortal. 

The Duchesse de Berry remained three weeks at Dieppe, 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 211 

during which she became immensely popular with the 
inhabitants. She had intended to make a much longer stay, 
but alarming news concerning the health of the King obliged 
her to cut short her visit, and on August 23 she set out for 
Paris. 

From the spring of 1824, it had been evident to all about him 
that Louis XVIII. had only a few months to liye. Nevertheless, 
the brave old man, though perfectly aware of his desperate con- 
dition, continued to struggle against the progress of his malady, 
and refused to make any change in his official life. " A king," 
said he one day, in reply to the remonstrances of his physicians, 
" is permitted to die, but is forbidden to be ill " ; and, on another 
occasion, he quoted the saying of Vespasian : " Oportet imperat- 
orem stantem mori." 

He still continued to preside at the meetings of the Council 
and to give audiences, and, with the intention of concealing 
his condition from the public as long as possible, in order to 
minimise the chance of disturbances at the beginning of the new 
reign, took his accustomed drive every day, though so inanimate 
did he appear that people declared that it was not the King, but 
a lay figure, dressed to resemble him, which passed through the 
streets. 

On August 25, notwithstanding the extreme heat, the King 
insisted on returning from Saint-Cloud to the Tuileries, to 
celebrate there the Feast of Saint-Louis. The usual reception 
and presentations took place, and the poor old man, seated in his 
armchair and wearing a uniform covered with gold lace and 
studded with Orders, forced himself to preserve for several hours 
the attitude and manner proper to these occasions. Every one 
present, however, was shocked at his appearance. " His once 
noble head," writes Madame de Boigne, " was so shrunken that 
it looked quite small. It drooped upon his chest so low that his 
shoulders rose above it ; only with an effort could he raise his 
face, and then he showed features so changed and lifeless that 
there could be no doubt as to his condition." Nevertheless, he 
contrived to murmur a few words to those who defiled before 
him, and it was only at the end that pain and drowsiness 
prevailed over his resolution, and, with his head almost 
touching his knees, he fell into a slumber of exhaustion, and 
was carried back to his apartments, still sleeping. 



212 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

On the 27th and 28th, the King, in the hope of dispelling 
the public alarm, which his obstinate firmness had only served 
to increase, went for his usual drive. On the following day, he 
announced his intention of returning to Saint-Cloud ; but, at the 
last moment, he found himself so ill that he was obliged to 
countermand the departure of the Court. From that day he 
never quitted his apartments, but he still gave audiences, and, 
pitiable as was his physical weakness, his mind was as clear and 
his memory as remarkable as it had been in perfect health. 
Villdle relates in his Memoires that on September 2 he waited on 
the King to ask, on behalf of the Due d'Orleans, that the Due de 
Chartres, who would attain his fourteenth year on the following 
day, should be invested with the cordon bleu, as, according to 
Louis-Philippe, all the princes of the Blood had received it at 
that age, and notably the Due d'Enghien. The Minister found 
his master scarcely able to hold up his head, and was obliged to 
beg him to allow a pillow to be placed beneath it, in order that 
he might catch what he said. Nevertheless, he answered without 
a moment's hesitation : " You will tell the Due d'Orleans that he 
is mistaken — that what he asks for is not due until the fifteenth 
year, and that I shall never do more for him than what is due. 
The example he cites condemns his pretensions. The Due 
d'Enghien was born the — " and he gave, with astonishing pre- 
cision, the day, month, and year of his birth — " and only received 
the cordon bleu the — " and again he cited the precise date — 
" fifteen years after his birth. The Due de Chartres will only 
receive it to-morrow year." 

During the next few days, the malady made alarmingprogress, 
but he still struggled to perform his duties of Sovereign, pre- 
siding at the Council with his head supported by pillows. On 
the 10th, he appeared at table for the last time. " This was the 
first day," writes Marmont, who was present " that he suffered 
from moments of absent-mindedness. He did I know not what 
disagreeable thing to the Duchesse d'Angouleme. On recovering 
himself, he noticed it, and said to her, with admirable resignation 
and an angelic gentleness : ' Niece, you must pardon me ; when 
any one is dying, he does not know very well what he is 
about.' " 

Meanwhile, the Royal Family were becoming increasingly 
anxious that the King's confessor, the Abbe Rocher, should be 
summoned, but none of them had as yet dared to propose it to the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 213 

dying man, who, unlike his brother, had always strongly resented 
the least attempt at priestly domination. At length, on the nth, 
they decided to request Madame du Cayla, to whom the King 
intended to bid farewell that afternoon, to undertake this painful 
duty and persuade him to be reconciled with Heaven. The fair 
countess's mind was occupied just then by matters very different 
from the salvation of her royal admirer, 1 but the mission was 
one which, of course, it was impossible for her to refuse, and, 
after her departure, the Royal Family learned, to their intense 
relief, that his Majesty's confessor had been sent for. 

It was none too soon, for, during the evening, the King 
became so much worse that it was decided to administer the 
Sacraments early on the following morning (Sunday, September 
12). At eight o'clock, the Grand Almoner, the Cardinal de Croy, 
and the cure of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, followed by Monsieur, 
the Due and Duchesse d'Angouleme, the Duchesse de Berry, the 
Princes and Princesses of the Blood, the grand officers of the 
Crown, and the Ministers and Secretaries of State, brought the 
Holy Sacrament to the King's apartments. The clergy, the 
princes and princesses entered the royal bedchamber ; the rest 
of the cortege remained in the adjoining cabinets. The King 
received the consecrated wafer from the hands of the Grand 
Almoner, and Extreme Unction was afterwards administered. 
The princes and princesses then knelt down to receive the royal 
blessing, and, advancing in turn to the bed, embraced the King 
for the last time. 

Later in the day, Louis XVIII. asked to see the Due de 
Bordeaux and Mademoiselle, who were brought from Saint- 
Cloud by their gouver?iante. " He wished to embrace them," 
writes Madame de Gontaut : " I lifted up the Due de Bordeaux, 
and I heard him say, in a very low voice : ' Poor child ! May you 
be more happy than we have been ! ' Meanwhile, Mademoiselle 
took his hand and kissed it. I trembled lest she should touch 
his feet, which were in a frightful condition. I pitied him deeply, 

1 Madame du Cayla did not take leave of the King with empty hands. She 
presented for his signature an order to buy for her the Hotel de Montmorency, in the 
Rue de Bourbon, which its present owner Marechal Mortier, Due de Trevise, had 
recently announced for sale. Louis XVIII. made a formless scrawl at the bottom 
of the paper, which was accepted as a regular signature by the Due de Doudeauville, 
Minister of the King's Household, and that same day the purchase money — 700,000 
francs — was paid to the marshal, and his hotel became the property of Madame du 
Cayla. 



2i 4 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and I felt so sad that I could scarcely restrain my tears. When 
I reached the door, I looked back once more, and felt that it 
was for the last time. On our way back to Saint-Cloud the 
children were very sad." 

Until that morning, the King's condition had been carefully 
concealed from the public, but bulletins were now issued which 
effectually dispelled all illusions, and on the following day orders 
were given for the closing of the Bourse and the theatres. 

On September 13, there was a trifling improvement, and the 
Duchesse de Berry was able to drive out to Saint-Cloud and 
spend some hours with her children. On the 14th, however, the 
King was much weaker> and the prayers for the dying were 
recited in his bedchamber, in the presence of the Royal Family. 
At that moment, Louis XVIII. , who had sunk into a state of 
coma, recovered consciousness. " Sire," said the Grand Almoner, 
" unite yourself to the intention of my prayers." " I do not 
think I have got to that point yet," was the reply ; " but no 
matter ; go on." 

On the 15th, it was seen that the King was rapidly sinking, 
and at three o'clock on the morning of Thursday, September 16, 
the end came. When the King's laboured breathing ceased, 
the Baron Portal, first surgeon to Louis XVI 1 1., took a candle 
and held it close to his royal patient's mouth. Then, seeing 
that the flame remained upright, he turned to Monsieur^ and 
exclaimed : " Le Roi est mort ! Vive le Roi ! " 

The new King, overwhelmed with grief, for, notwithstanding 
their occasional quarrels, he had been tenderly attached to his 
brother, left the chamber of death with the tears streaming 
down his face. The Duchesse d'Angouleme prepared to follow 
him. Hitherto, as the daughter of a king, she had always 
taken precedence of her husband, but when she reached the 
door, she suddenly remembered that she enjoyed that right no 
longer, and, turning to the duke, said : " Passes, Monsieur le 
Dauphin ! " Deeply affected as she was by the death of the 
man who had been a second father to her, she would not permit 
it to distract her attention from a matter of pure etiquette, in 
circumstances when no one would have noticed any breach of it. 



CHAPTER XVII 

The new King and the Royal Family at Saint-Cloud — Lying-in-state of 
Louis XVIII. — The procession to Saint-Denis — The funeral ceremony — Character of 
Charles X. — The new reign opens under the happiest auspices — Entry of the King 
into Paris — Review in the Champ de Mars — A colonel of four years of age — Opening 
of the Chambers : incident of the King's hat — Death of Ferdinand I. of the Two 
Sicilies — Charles X. decides to be crowned at Rheims — Arrival of the King at 
Rheims — The Duchesse de Berry and Jeanne d'Arc — The Sacre — The return to 
Paris. 

IN accordance with the custom of the Kings of France, who 
never remained a moment longer than necessary in the 
palace where their predecessor had just passed away, 
Charles X. immediately despatched a mounted messenger to 
Saint-Cloud, with directions to Madame de Gontaut to have 
everything in readiness for the arrival of the Royal Family, who 
followed an hour or two later. 

On his arrival, the new Sovereign, whose countenance plainly 
showed how deeply he felt the loss of his brother, inquired what 
apartments had been prepared for him. He was told that both 
his own and the late King's had been made ready. "He 
stopped," writes Madame de Gontaut, "clasped his hands in 
silence, and then, turning to the governor of the chateau, said : 
4 It must be so ; let us go upstairs.' We followed him. He 
traversed the apartments and stopped at the door of the King's 
chamber. I came forward with Monseigneur [the Due de 
Bordeaux] and Mademoiselle, and he embraced them. They, 
poor children ! were quite upset by all this sadness. He said to 
them : ' As soon as I can, I will come to see you ; ' and then, 
turning round, he said to the persons who were following him : 
' I desire to be alone.' They all silently withdrew. We 
accompanied the Duchesse de Berry to her apartment ; Madame 
la Dauphine (for that was her title now) wept ; the Dauphin 
had disappeared. It was all very dismal ; nobody said a word. 
Thus passed the first day of the reign of Charles X." 

On the morning of the 17th, the members of the Royal 

215 



216 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Family, including the little Due de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle, 
waited upon Charles X. to pay him homage, which ceremony 
concluded, they all repaired to the chapel, where a Requiem 
Mass for the soul of the late King was celebrated. After Mass, 
the King received the Due and Duchesse d'Orleans, Mile. 
d'Orleans, and the Due de Bourbon in his cabinet, and subse- 
quently gave audience to the Ministers and grand officers of 
the Crown, who renewed the customary oath of allegiance, and 
to the Papal Nuncio, who pronounced a discourse in the name 
of the Diplomatic Corps. 

The King spent the greater part of the following day in 
receiving deputations from various public bodies and munici- 
palities. On the 19th, he drove to the Tuileries, where, with the 
princes and princesses, he sprinkled holy water upon the body 
of his brother, which, after being embalmed, had been laid upon 
a state bed in the throne-room, and then returned to Saint- 
Cloud. After his departure, the doors were opened and the 
public admitted to pay the last tribute of respect to their 
deceased sovereign. More than one hundred and fifty thousand 
persons are said to have defiled before the coffin. 

The removal of the remains of the late King to Saint-Denis 
took place on the 23rd, with great solemnity. The gendarmerie 
of Paris and of the Department of the Seine opened the march, 
followed by the general-staff and detachments from various 
regiments. After them came the Polytechnic School and the 
School of Saint- Cyr, a great number of officers of different grades, 
and representatives of various corporations. Four hundred poor 
men, each holding in his hand, according to custom, a lighted 
taper, immediately preceded the Court carriages, in which 
were the princes, the grand dignitaries, and the officials of 
the Royal Household. In the last sat the Grand Almoner, the 
Cardinal de Croy, holding a silver-gilt box, which contained 
the heart of the late King. Finally, came the funeral-car, 
which was of the utmost magnificence, covered with embroidery, 
cyphers, and emblems. Four statues of silver representing 
Fame, supported at each angle the dome, on which appeared 
two angels, likewise of silver, bearing a colossal royal crown. 
The car was drawn by twelve magnificent horses, with tall black 
plumes on their heads, led by twenty-four grooms in mourning 
livery. Four of the late King's chaplains followed the hearse, 
and the pages, equerries, and heralds-at-arms, and a detachment 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 217 

of the bodyguard closed the official part of the procession. On 
leaving the Tuileries, the cortege passed under the Arc de 
Triomphe and took the road to Saint-Denis, following the 
boulevards and the faubourg. Batteries of artillery, placed at 
regular intervals, fired salutes, and the regimental bands played 
in turn funeral marches. An immense crowd lined the route, 
whose profound silence increased the imposing effect of the long 
and majestic cortege, slowly defiling through its midst ; all the 
shops in Paris were closed, and many of the houses draped in 
black. On arriving at Saint-Denis, the bier was lifted from the 
hearse and delivered into the care of the Chapter. Eight 
soldiers of the Gardes du corps then carried it into the chapelle 
ardente prepared for its reception, where it remained exposed 
until October 24. On that day it was transported to the 
catafalque raised in the middle of the basilica, and on the 25th 
the final obsequies were celebrated. 

The Dauphin and Dauphine assisted at the ceremony, 
but, in conformity with etiquette, Charles X. was not present. 
He remained at the Tuileries, and attended a Requiem Mass in 
the chapel of the chateau, celebrated at the same hour as the 
service at Saint-Denis. The Duchesse de Berry remained with 
him, since it had been judged advisable to spare the young 
princess so painful a spectacle as the opening of the vault which 
was the burial-place of her assassinated husband and her two 
children who had died immediately after their birth. 

At St. Denis, the Mass was said by the Grand Almoner, and 
the Bishop of Hermepolis pronounced the funeral oration. 
After the absolution, the coffin was lifted from the catafalque 
and borne to the royal tomb by twelve Gardes du corps ; the 
Chancellor Dambray, representing the Chamber of Peers, Ravez, 
representing the Chamber of Deputies, the Comte de Seze, re- 
presenting the magistracy, and Marechal Moncey, Due de Cone- 
gliano, representing the Army, supported the corners of the 
pall. After the coffin had been lowered into the vault, and the 
King-at-arms had thrown the deceased monarch's spurs, gaunt- 
lets, buckler, and helmet after it, the Due d'Uzes, Grand Master 
of France, placed the end of his baton in the vault, and cried : 
" Le Roi est mort ! " The King-at-arms, stepping back three 
paces, repeated three times, in a loud voice : " Le Roi est mort/" 
Then, turning towards the congregation, he said : " Pray God for 
the repose of his soul ! " 



218 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

At these words, the clergy and every one present fell on 
their knees, and remained for a moment in silent prayer. The 
Grand Master drew back his baton, and brandishing it cried ; 
" Vive le Roi ! " The King-at-arms repeated : " Vive le Roi ! 
Vive le Roi. Vive le Roi Charles, tenth of the name ! by the 
grace of God, King of France and Navarre, very Christian, very 
august, very puissant, our very honoured lord and good master, 
to whom may God accord a very long and very happy life ! Cry 
all : ' Vive le Roi i ' " Then the trumpets, drums, and fifes sounded 
a loud fanfare, and the vast basilica rang with deafening shouts 
of " Vive le Roi ! Vive Charles X." 

Born on October 9, 1757, Charles X. was just about to enter 
his sixty-eighth year at the moment of his accession to the 
throne. Save, however, for the colour of his hair, which was 
almost snow-white, he might well have passed for a man of 
fifty, since, thanks to regular habits and an exceptionally fine 
constitution, " he had preserved, under the first frosts of age, the 
briskness, the erectness, the elasticity, and the beauty of his 
youth." x A tall, lithe, handsome man, an indefatigable sports- 
man, a bold and accomplished rider, an agreeable talker, ex- 
quisitely courteous to women, gracious and affable towards all, 
he presented a striking contrast to his corpulent, infirm pre- 
decessor. Possessed in a remarkable degree of the art of 
pleasing, he charmed every one who approached him, and so 
perfectly did he succeed in setting people at their ease that they 
were sometimes in danger of forgetting that they were talking 
to the King. 

Since the death of his beloved Madame de Polastron, in 
1803, his private life had been altogether beyond reproach. 
None of the scandals which had disgraced the Court of almost 
all his predecessors was permitted to tarnish his, and even the 
most malicious gossips never ventured to couple his name with 
that of any woman. He was an affectionate father and grand- 
father, a loyal friend, a kind and indulgent master, and a 
sincerely religious man. In short, it would have been difficult 
to say whether his kingly qualities or his private virtues aroused 
the most admiration. 

Unhappily, with his many good qualities, Charles combined 
grave faults — faults which were to prove his undoing. He did 

1 Lamartine. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 219 

not lack intelligence and was animated by the best motives, but 
he was utterly wanting in that gift, which is above all others 
essential for a king — the knowledge of men. From his youth 
upwards he had chosen his associates badly ; complaisant ladies 
and frivolous young men had been the companions of his youth ; 
bigoted priests and reactionary nobles were the familiars of his 
riper years. Since the return of his family to France, a little 
court, half ecclesiastical, half political, had grouped itself about 
him, composed, for the most part, of men grown old in exile and 
embittered against the Revolution by which they had been pro- 
scribed. This little court, ignorant, prejudiced, and greedy, 
which abhorred the Charter, detested popular institutions, and 
regarded the middle-classes with almost as much disdain as it 
did the masses, had been during the reign of Louis XVIII. a 
focus of aristocratic and episcopal opposition, and had thwarted 
at every turn the conciliatory policy of the King. Baneful, 
however, as had been its influence in the late reign, it was to be 
infinitely more disastrous in that of a King who had acquired 
the deplorable habit of viewing affairs with the eyes of those 
about him, and whose zeal for religion caused him to fall an 
easy prey to those who claimed to speak in its name. The 
sublime, it has been well said, is not so near the ridiculous as 
is superstition to immorality. Sincerely desirous of atoning for 
the follies of his youth, Charles's devotion perverted his 
judgment and influenced his policy to an extent of which he 
himself was perhaps only dimly aware. Often when he believed 
that he was obeying the dictates of his conscience, he was 
simply acting under the inspiration of his sacerdotal advisers. 
" He was destined," observed Lamartine, " to fall a victim to 
his faith. In him the Christian was destined to ruin the 
king." > 

Seldom, however, did a reign open under happier auspices. 
The conspiracies and agitations of which France had so long 
been the theatre had ceased ; Napoleon was dead, and his son, 
the young Duke of Reichstadt, regarded by most people as a 
simple Austrian prince, provoked no enthusiasm, save among a 
few of the most devoted Bonapartists. The Army, since the 
war in Spain, had given itself definitely to the Bourbons. The 
extreme Liberal party had been reduced to silence and impotence, 
and an immense majority in both Chambers supported the 

1 Histoire de la Restauration. 



218 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

At these words, the clergy and every one present fell on 
their knees, and remained for a moment in silent prayer. The 
Grand Master drew back his baton, and brandishing it cried ; 
" Vive le Roi ! " The King-at-arms repeated : " Vive le Roi ! 
Vive le Roi. Vive le Roi Charles, tenth of the name ! by the 
grace of God, King of France and Navarre, very Christian, very 
august, very puissant, our very honoured lord and good master, 
to whom may God accord a very long and very happy life ! Cry 
all : ' Vive le Roi ! ' " Then the trumpets, drums, and fifes sounded 
a loud fanfare, and the vast basilica rang with deafening shouts 
of " Vive le Roi ! Vive Charles X." 

Born on October 9, 1757, Charles X. was just about to enter 
his sixty-eighth year at the moment of his accession to the 
throne. Save, however, for the colour of his hair, which was 
almost snow-white, he might well have passed for a man of 
fifty, since, thanks to regular habits and an exceptionally fine 
constitution, " he had preserved, under the first frosts of age, the 
briskness, the erectness, the elasticity, and the beauty of his 
youth." l A tall, lithe, handsome man, an indefatigable sports- 
man, a bold and accomplished rider, an agreeable talker, ex- 
quisitely courteous to women, gracious and affable towards all, 
he presented a striking contrast to his corpulent, infirm pre- 
decessor. Possessed in a remarkable degree of the art of 
pleasing, he charmed every one who approached him, and so 
perfectly did he succeed in setting people at their ease that they 
were sometimes in danger of forgetting that they were talking 
to the King. 

Since the death of his beloved Madame de Polastron, in 
1803, his private life had been altogether beyond reproach. 
None of the scandals which had disgraced the Court of almost 
all his predecessors was permitted to tarnish his, and even the 
most malicious gossips never ventured to couple his name with 
that of any woman. He was an affectionate father and grand- 
father, a loyal friend, a kind and indulgent master, and a 
sincerely religious man. In short, it would have been difficult 
to say whether his kingly qualities or his private virtues aroused 
the most admiration. 

Unhappily, with his many good qualities, Charles combined 
grave faults — faults which were to prove his undoing. He did 

1 Lamartine. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 219 

not lack intelligence and was animated by the best motives, but 
he was utterly wanting in that gift, which is above all others 
essential for a king — the knowledge of men. From his youth 
upwards he had chosen his associates badly ; complaisant ladies 
and frivolous young men had been the companions of his youth ; 
bigoted priests and reactionary nobles were the familiars of his 
riper years. Since the return of his family to France, a little 
court, half ecclesiastical, half political, had grouped itself about 
him, composed, for the most part, of men grown old in exile and 
embittered against the Revolution by which they had been pro- 
scribed. This little court, ignorant, prejudiced, and greedy, 
which abhorred the Charter, detested popular institutions, and 
regarded the middle-classes with almost as much disdain as it 
did the masses, had been during the reign of Louis XVIII. a 
focus of aristocratic and episcopal opposition, and had thwarted 
at every turn the conciliatory policy of the King. Baneful, 
however, as had been its influence in the late reign, it was to be 
infinitely more disastrous in that of a King who had acquired 
the deplorable habit of viewing affairs with the eyes of those 
about him, and whose zeal for religion caused him to fall an 
easy prey to those who claimed to speak in its name. The 
sublime, it has been well said, is not so near the ridiculous as 
is superstition to immorality. Sincerely desirous of atoning for 
the follies of his youth, Charles's devotion perverted his 
judgment and influenced his policy to an extent of which he 
himself was perhaps only dimly aware. Often when he believed 
that he was obeying the dictates of his conscience, he was 
simply acting under the inspiration of his sacerdotal advisers. 
" He was destined," observed Lamartine, " to fall a victim to 
his faith. In him the Christian was destined to ruin the 
king." l 

Seldom, however, did a reign open under happier auspices. 
The conspiracies and agitations of which France had so long 
been the theatre had ceased ; Napoleon was dead, and his son, 
the young Duke of Reichstadt, regarded by most people as a 
simple Austrian prince, provoked no enthusiasm, save among a 
few of the most devoted Bonapartists. The Army, since the 
war in Spain, had given itself definitely to the Bourbons. The 
extreme Liberal party had been reduced to silence and impotence, 
and an immense majority in both Chambers supported the 

1 Histoire de la Restauration. 



220 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Monarchy. Nothing, either at home or abroad, seemed to 
indicate that the era of revolutions was not definitely closed, and 
that Charles X. might not look forward to a reign as tranquil as 
that of his predecessor had been stormy. 

The conduct of the new King was certainly calculated 
to dispel any suspicions entertained by liberal opinion as to 
the policy which he would pursue on his accession to the 
throne. The deputations which came to felicitate him at Saint- 
Cloud were assured that it was his intention " to maintain the 
Charter and the institutions that they owed to the King whom 
Heaven had taken from them " ; to obliterate every trace of past 
dissension between the two branches of the Royal House, the 
Due d'Orleans was accorded the coveted title of Royal High- 
ness, which, it will be remembered, Louis XVIII. had constantly 
refused him, and the marshals and generals who had taken up 
arms for Napoleon during the Hundred Days, and had until 
then remained in disgrace, were received with the utmost 
cordiality and informed that the past was forgotten. 

In the midst of the enthusiasm aroused by these conciliatory 
acts, on September 27, 1824, Charles X. made his entry into 
Paris. Leaving Saint-Cloud at half-past eleven, the King 
passed through the Bois de Boulogne and arrived at the Porte- 
Maillot, where the procession was formed. It was composed of 
the King's staff, the National Guards of Paris, the Royal Guard, 
the Due de Bourbon and his aides-de-camp, the Due d'Orl6ans 
and his Household, the Dauphin and his staff, the Gardes du 
corps, the aides-de-camp of his Majesty, his pages, the King, 
his civil Household, the carriage of the Dauphine, with whom 
were the Duchesse de Berry, the Duchesse d'Orleans, and Mile. 
d'Orleans, and the carriages containing the ladies of their 
suites. The King rode a magnificent white Arab charger, 
and, notwithstanding his white hair and his sixty-seven years, 
looked almost as sprightly as in the days of his youth. 

At the Barriere de l'Etoile, a salvo of one hundred and one 
guns announced the arrival of the King in Paris. The Comte 
de Chabrol, the Prefect of the Seine, at the head of the members 
of the Municipal Council, harangued his Majesty and presented 
him with the keys of the town ; and the procession then 
proceeded down the Champs Elys^es and the Avenue de 
Marigny and entered the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. As 
the King was passing the Elys^e, a voice was heard calling: 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 221 

" Bon-papa ! Bon-papa ! " And, looking up, he perceived at a 
window of the palace the Due de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle, 
who had obtained permission to witness the pageant. His 
Majesty's affection for his grandchildren prevailed over his 
regard for etiquette, and, notwithstanding the horrified protesta- 
tions of the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, he wheeled his 
horse and rode up to the window. This unexpected movement 
threw the procession into disorder, and a sergent-de-ville, not 
recognising the King, seized his horse's bridle, upon which the 
animal began to plunge and rear so violently that Madame de 
Gontaut, who was with the children, feared that the royal rider 
would be thrown, and uttered a cry of alarm. Charles, however, 
was too good a horseman to allow himself to be unseated ; he 
soon succeeded in quieting his frightened steed, and having 
spoken a few affectionate words to the children and bowed 
gracefully to the ladies who were with them, he resumed his 
place in the procession, while the crowd, delighted by this little 
incident, rent the air with shouts of " Vive le Roi I " 1 

By way of the boulevards, the Rue Saint-Denis, and the 
Pont-au-Change, the cortege reached Notre-Dame, where the 
King was received by the Archbishop of Paris, at the head of 
his clergy. The Domine, salvum fac regem was intoned and 
repeated by the deputations and functionaries of all ranks who 
filled the basilica, and the Te Deum sung. On leaving the 
cathedral, Charles X. again mounted his horse and proceeded 
along the quays to the Tuileries in a pouring rain, which, 
however, neither diminished the number of the spectators nor 
damped their enthusiasm ; while the King took his wetting 
with the best grace in the world and charmed the people by 
the graciousness with which he acknowledged their greetings. 
" From Saint-Cloud to Notre-Dame, from Notre-Dame to the 
Tuileries," wrote the Duchesse de Berry to Madame de Gontaut, 
"the King was escorted by acclamations, by marks of approbation 
and love." 

Three days later (September 30), Charles X. held a grand 
review on the Champ de Mars. An immense crowd covered 
the plain, and the enthusiasm was, if possible, even greater than 
on the day of his entry, for that morning there had appeared 
in the journals a royal Ordinance which abolished the censor- 
ship and re-established the liberty of the Press. The Dauphine, 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mcmoires. 



222 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the Duchesse de Berry, and the Due de Bordeaux accompanied 
the King, and the little prince shared with his grandfather the 
honours of the day. He was in the uniform of a colonel of 
cuirassiers, and took himself very seriously indeed; and the crowd 
was hugely delighted at seeing this colonel of four years old 
respond to its applause by a correct military salute. 

The opening of the Chambers took place at the Louvre on 
December 22, 1824, in the presence of an immense crowd. The 
Duchesse de Berry with her children and the Dauphine and 
the Duchesse d'Orleans assisted at the ceremony. At the 
moment of the King's arrival, an incident occurred which, after 
the July Revolution, the superstitious did not fail to recall, 
though, at the time, they probably attached to it little signi- 
ficance. " The estrade prepared for the Royal Family," writes 
Madame de Gontaut, "was the same that had been made for 
the late King ; and, by inadvertence, a little unevenness had 
been left, which escaped the King's notice and made him 
stumble. This movement caused his hat, which he was holding 
under his arm, to fall to the ground, and the Due d'Orleans 
picked it up. The Duchesse d'Orleans said to me : ' The King 
would have fallen, but my husband saved him.' I replied : 
c No, Madame, Monseigneur only picked up his Majesty's hat.' 
At this the Dauphine turned and looked at me. We did not 
speak of it until six years later ; but we never forgot it, either 
of us." 1 

At the end of February 1825, the Duchesse de Berry learned 
of the death of her grandfather, Ferdinand I. of the Two Sicilies, 
who had died on January 4, 1825, leaving the crown to the 
princess's father, who ascended the throne under the name of 
Francis I. The Duchesse de Berry had not seen the old 
King since her departure from Naples in the spring of 18 16, 
but she had not forgotten the kindness with which he had 
always treated her, and she was sincerely grieved at his death. 
However, the preparations for the Sacre at Rheims served to 
divert the princess's thoughts into a different channel. 

Half a century had passed since a King of France had been 
crowned in the cathedral of Saint-Remi, for Louis XVII. had 
passed the few months of his royalty a prisoner in the Temple, 
and the excessive fatigue which the ceremony would have 
imposed upon him, and the enormous expense it would have 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mimoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 223 

involved, had deterred Louis XVIII. from reviving it. Charles 
X., however, who enjoyedlthe best of health, and whose accession 
found the finances of France completely re-established, did not 
hesitate to revert to the custom of his ancestors, which, to his 
devout mind must have seemed an indispensable preliminary 
to the exercise of kingly authority ; and at the opening of the 
Chambers, in the previous December, he had announced his 
intention of " renewing his oaths and returning thanks to the 
Divine Providence at the foot of the same altar where Clovis 
received the holy unction." His decision was hailed with 
enthusiasm by the Chambers, which voted a sum of six million 
francs to defray the expense of the ceremony. 

May 29 was the date selected for the Sacre. On the 28th, 
the King made his entry into Rheims in a magnificent gilded 
coach, and passed under a long avenue of triumphal arches to 
the cathedral, where he was received by the Archbishop of 
Rheims and his suffragans, the Bishops of Soissons, Beauvais, 
Chalons, and Amiens. The archbishop presented holy water 
and incense to the King, and then a copy of the Gospels, which 
his Majesty, who knelt upon a velvet cushion, pressed to his 
lips. The King was then conducted into the cathedral, where 
he heard Vespers, at which the archbishop officiated, and an 
cloge of himself and the Royal Family from the Cardinal de la 
Fare, after which he proceeded to the archiepiscopal palace, 
where he was to pass the night. The Duchesse de Berry, with 
the Dauphine and the Princesses of the Blood, was present at 
the service, and, early the following morning, before the doors 
were opened to the public, she repaired alone to the cathedral, 
in the strictest incognito, and kneeling on the spot where 
Jeanne d'Arc had stood, holding the royal orifiamme at the 
coronation of Charles VII., offered up a fervent prayer to the 
saviour of France, who had long been the object of her particular 
veneration. 

The Sacre began at seven o'clock, in the presence of a 
brilliant assemblage, which included Ambassadors Extraordinary 
from every sovereign in Europe. The ancient ceremonial had 
been somewhat abridged, and certain portions which were no 
longer compatible with modern ideas modified, the most notable 
instance being the substitution of an oath to govern in conformity 
with the Charter for that which the Kings of France formally 
took to exterminate heresy. The most interesting and impressive 



224 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

details had, however, been retained, and Charles X. wore his 
mediaeval and somewhat theatrical costume — the tunic, the 
mantle, the buskins, and the rest — with so much grace and 
dignity that his appearance excited general admiration. The 
Holy Ampulla itself was not, as several writers incorrectly 
state, used on this occasion ; it was no longer in existence, 
having been broken to pieces, in 1793, by Ruhl, the deputy in 
mission to the department of the Marne. 1 But, before delivering 
it to the Conventionalist, the Abbe Seraine, cure of Saint-Remi, 
had extracted a part of its contents, which was carefully pre- 
served and used for the anointing of Charles X. 

On June 6, the King returned to his capital, which was again 
favoured by a state entry. Charles X. occupied a magnificent 
coach with seven windows, and was accompanied by the Dauphin 
and the Dues d'Orleans and de Bourbon. The Duchesse de 
Berry, the Dauphine, and the Orleans princes followed in 
another. The weather, on this occasion, was magnificent, but 
shrewd observers did not fail to note that his Majesty was 
much less cordially received than he had been in the previous 
September, amid the discouragement of pouring rain. The 
measures presented to the Chambers in the past session had 
not given satisfaction, and one of them — that which re-established 
the crime of sacrilege in the civil law and punished it by death 
— was bitterly resented by all shades of liberal opinion. Clouds 
were already beginning to darken the horizon which a few 
months before had appeared so serene. 

The return of the Court was followed by an interminable 
series of fetes : balls, banquets, receptions, and gala performances 
at the different theatres. In most of these gaieties the Duchesse 
de Berry naturally played a prominent part. On June 8, she 
accompanied the King to a magnificent fete offered him by the 
town of Paris at the Hotel de Ville, to which no less than eight 
thousand guests had been bidden ; and, a few days later, clad 
in a marvellous toilette and blazing' with diamonds, opened a 
grand ball at the Tuileries with the Duke of Northumberland, 
who had been sent as Ambassador Extraordinary to the Sacre. 

1 For the legend of the Holy Ampulla and a full account of the Sacre of a King 
of France, see the author's " Henri II. : his Court and Times " (London, Methuen ; 
New York, Scribner, 1910). 



CHAPTER XVIII 

The Duchesse de Berry assumes the title of Madame — The period between the 
coronation of Charles X. and the fall of the Monarchy that of her greatest social 
triumphs — The Chateau of Rosny — Her life there — Her kindness to the poor of the 
neighbourhood — The heart of the Due de Berry deposited in the chapel of the hos- 
pital which she erects at Rosny — Madame at Dieppe — The royal yacht, le Triton — An 
intrepid sailor — Benevolence of Madame — Visit of Mademoiselle to Dieppe — A gal- 
lant mayor — Picnic in the valley of Arques — The Due de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle 
— Anecdotes of their early years — Admirable educational system of Madame de Gon- 
taut — Anxiety of the gouvemante to protect her charges from flatterers — An invaluable 
object-lesson — The Due de Bordeaux leaves Madame de Gontaut's care for that of the 
Due de Riviere, who has been appointed his gouvemeur — The nomination of the 
duke and that of Mgr. Thalin, Bishop of Strasbourg, to the post of preceptor, severely 
criticised by the Opposition journals — Death of the Due de Riviere, who is succeeded 
by the Baron de Damas. 

WHEN, on the accession of Charles X., the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme became Dauphine, the Duchesse de 
Berry succeeded to her title of Madame ; the Pavil- 
ion de Marsan became the chateau of Madame ; the Th&itre- 
Gymnase, which she had taken under her special protection, 
assumed the name of the Theatre de Madame ; tradesmen 
whom she honoured with her patronage proudly styled them- 
selves grocer, confectioner, or wine-merchant to Madame} For 
Madame was Queen, in everything but the name. The five 
years between the coronation of Charles X. and the fall of the 
Monarchy were the period of her greatest triumphs, and her 
popularity seemed only to increase as that of her relatives 
declined. No balls or fetes made so much stir as hers ; none 
caused so much money to circulate. "Let her go to Dieppe 
or retire for a week to Rosny, the couttiriers mark the days 
on the calendar as schoolboys the approach of the holidays. 
She returns ; countenances change, the first representations are 

1 Madame de Boigne states that Charles X. refused to accord the title of Madame 
to the Duchesse de Berry, and that it was "used only by those attached to her House- 
hold, by some familiar friends, and by those who wished to curry favour." This, of 
course, is quite untrue. 

Q 225 



226 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

announced, the new ' creations ' are brought out. The Dauphine 
may remain at Vichy, if it please her ; no one will raise any 
objection to that. Let them only see again the little carriage 
with the two light sorrels, the coachman and lackeys in the blue 
livery, and they will want work no more." x 

The princess, indeed, seems to have lived in a perpetual 
whirl of gaiety. Few were the evenings on which she was not 
herself due at some festive gathering that a long line of carriages 
did not enter the inner court of the Carrousel. Sometimes, it 
was a dinner-party, at others, a children's fete, or a concert, or 
a play, "commanded" at a few hours' notice and performed on 
a hastily-improvised stage, with a row of candles for footlights 
and a Chinese screen for decorations. But whatever form her 
hospitality might take, her unaffected gaiety and good-humour, 
her evident desire that every one of her guests should share to 
the full her own enjoyment, and the refreshing absence of 
ceremony which marked her entertainments, never failed to 
create the most favourable impression ; and a person would 
have been indeed hard to please who, after a first visit to the 
Pavilion de Marsan, did not look forward with pleasure to a 
second invitation. 

The princess's devotion to the pleasures of the capital did 
not prevent her from spending a great part of the summer and 
autumn in the country or at the seaside ; indeed, accustomed 
as she had been in her girlhood to a simple, open-air life, free 
from all etiquette and constraint, she was much happier in such 
surroundings than amid the noise and bustle of Paris and the 
wearisome ceremonial of the Court. Some eighteen months 
before his tragic death, the Due de Berry, who had shared his 
wife's taste for country-life, had acquired for her, for the sum 
of two million francs, the chateau and estate of Rosny, a few 
miles from Mantes. The chateau, picturesquely situated in the 
midst of a wooded park, was a fine example of the architecture 
of the Henri Quatre period. Built by Sully — "our good lord 
of Rosny" — the faithful friend and minister of the Bearnais, 
who had several times visited it, it had remained in possession 
of his descendants until early in the seventeenth century ; but 
at the time when the Due de Berry acquired it, it was the pro- 
perty of a M. Monrouet, a rich merchant of Paris. 

The Duchesse de Berry was delighted with Rosny, and, 

1 Henri Bouchot, le Luxefran$ais : le Restauration. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 227 

since it was only about five hours' journey from the capital for 
the light carriages and fine horses of the princess's stables, she 
visited it at frequent intervals. It was to her what the Petit- 
Trianon had been to Marie Antoinette — the place where she 
could lay aside all ceremony and live the life of a private person ; 
to which she could invite painters and sculptors, singers, and 
men of letters, all those, in fact, whom the etiquette of the 
Tuileries did not permit her to treat as friends in Paris ; where 
she could paint or sketch, hunt or fish, picnic in the adjoining 
forest, or romp with her children, and forget that she was the 
second lady in the land with all sorts of tiresome duties and 
obligations. 

The princess spent considerable sums on her Norman home, 
which became one of the most tastefully furnished and decorated 
chateaux in France, full of valuable paintings, costly tapestries, 
and rare objets d'art. She also did much for the improvement 
of the estate, and particularly for the village of Rosny, which 
found itself completely transformed, airy, comfortable cottages 
replacing the mean, insanitary huts which had stood there for 
generations. To the poor she was a veritable Lady Bountiful, 
for not only did she personally investigate every case of distress 
that came under her notice, but arranged that all the children 
of necessitous parents should be brought up at her expense. 
But the most lasting monument to her goodness of heart was 
the erection of a building which combined the functions of a 
hospital and an orphanage, in memory of her husband. In 
March 1824, she caused the heart of the Due de Berry, which 
had been provisionally deposited at the Abbey of Saint-Denis, 
to be transferred to the chapel attached to the hospital, and 
placed in a marble tomb. The blood-stained clothes which the 
prince had worn at the time of his assassination were also 
brought thither, and laid in an oaken chest in a vault beneath 
the altar. 

Dieppe was second only to Rosny in the affections of the 
Duchesse de Berry. So delighted was she with her first visit to 
the old Norman town that she returned there the following 
year, and every year up to 1830, with the exception of the 
summer of 1828, when she made a tour through the West of 
France. During these visits she refused to allow the constraints 
of etiquette in any way to interfere with her enjoyment, and 
spent nearly the whole of the day in the open air, bathing, 



228 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

boating, strolling along the beach and the jetty, and taking 
long walks or rides into the country ; while in the evening she 
went to the theatre or attended a ball. An excellent sailor, 
much of her time was passed upon the sea, either in a sloop-of- 
war which the Admiralty had placed at her disposal, or in the 
royal yacht, le Triton, the most coquettish little vessel afloat, 
painted in white and gold, with a gilded triton at the prow, and 
a tiny chateau on the poop, which comprised three rooms : a 
salon, a dining-room, and a bedroom, sumptuously upholstered 
and decorated in crimson and gold. For these marine excur- 
sions Madame had had a special toilette designed ; a blouse of 
black silk, a short skirt, high boots, and a tall hat of cerecloth 
adorned with a gold anchor. 1 

No matter how stormy the weather might happen to be, she 
could seldom be induced to remain on shore ; indeed, the higher 
the waves and the more boisterous the wind, the more she 
seemed to enjoy herself, and clapped her hands with glee as the 
yacht rose to the billows and showers of spray flew over the 
deck, drenching her and her ladies to the skin. The latter, who 
did not share their mistress's partiality for the sea, often suffered 
inexpressible anguish, and would have cheerfully given all they 
possessed in the world to find themselves on terra firma again. 
Madame, however, knew no fear, and nothing seemed able to 
ruffle her composure. Once, at the entrance to the harbour, 
the royal yacht was run down by another vessel, and for a few 
moments they were really in great danger. Her ladies gave 
themselves up for lost and shrieked with terror, but the princess 
only laughed at their despair, and seemed not one whit perturbed 
by the accident. 

Madame enjoyed great popularity among the fishing-popula- 
tion of Dieppe, in whom she always took the kindliest interest. 
One day, while the fishing-smacks were at sea, a terrible gale 
came on, which placed them in dire peril. The princess, 
accompanied by her ladies, hastened down to the jetty, and 
remained there, encouraging the rescuers, until the last of the 
little vessels had been brought into the harbour in safety. 
Learning that one of the crew had been washed overboard, she 
immediately sent a message of sympathy and a sum of money 
to the unfortunate man's widow, and countermanded a ball 
which she had proposed giving that evening. 

1 M. Henri Bouchot, le Luxe francais : la Restauration. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 229 

The presence of the Duchesse de Berry at Dieppe not only 
attracted to the town a crowd of visitors and secured for it a 
popularity that it had never before known, but did much to 
revive the two industries for which it had once been noted, but 
which of recent years had been permitted to languish, carving 
in ivory and lace-making. Taking compassion upon the unfor- 
tunate lace-makers, who, owing to the decline of their trade, had 
been reduced to pitiful straits, the princess charged herself with 
the expense of building a small manufactory, where the industry 
was carried on under the supervision of some of the most skil- 
ful workers in France. To this manufactory she gave every 
year considerable orders, and exerted herself to such good 
purpose to bring the lace of Dieppe into fashion again, that it 
was soon quite a flourishing concern. 

The poor of Dieppe had in the princess a faithful friend ; 
they spoke of her as "la bonne duchesse" and she certainly 
deserved the title. " I am very fond of amusing myself," said 
she, one day, " but the poor must also be considered " ; and she 
took care, whenever she gave a fete, that they should not be 
forgotten. 

During her visit to Dieppe in 1827, the Duchesse de Berry 
sent for her little daughter, who arrived in charge of Madame 
de Gontaut. An enthusiastic reception awaited Mademoiselle, 
who entered the town amid salvos of artillery and the ringing 
of bells, and was harangued by the sous-prefet, whose com- 
pliments she acknowledged in a little speech. The adora- 
tion of the Dieppois for the little princess knew no bounds, 
and the climax was reached when the mayor caused to be 
engraved on the threshold of his house the imprint of her foot, 
with an inscription recalling the visit she had condescended to 
pay him. 1 

Mademoiselle was greatly delighted with her stay at Dieppe, 
for the Duchesse de Berry permitted her to play about 
the beach just like other children, and even to go for donkey 
rides. One day, with the idea of combining amusement and 
instruction, she arranged a picnic for her in the valley of 
Arques, where, in 1589, Henri IV. had repulsed the forces of 
the League. The party journeyed thither on donkey-back, and, 
as a compliment to Madame de Gontaut, the breakfast-table 
was laid out upon the same hill which Armand de Gontaut, 

1 Vicomte de Reiset, Marie-Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. 



230 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Marechal de Biron, had so valiantly held against Mayenne's 
infantry. Afterwards, they visited the old chateau of Arques 
— now no longer in existence — the cannon of which had played 
no inconsiderable part in the victory. 1 

The Duchesse de Berry was the most devoted of mothers, 
and the confidence which she reposed in Madame de Gontaut 
did not prevent her from supervising the smallest details con- 
nected with the royal nursery. Both Mademoiselle and the Due 
de Bordeaux were charming children, high-spirited, intelligent, 
and amiable. In character, the former favoured the Bourbons, 
having an assurance and dignity about her which was infinitely 
diverting ; while the little prince, like his mother, was affectionate 
and impulsive. One day, an old courtier, the Marquis de 
Bouille, having been admitted to pay his homage, took Made- 
moiselle's hand and kissed the tips of her fingers. The little 
princess, under the impression that the marquis had taken a 
liberty, immediately began to wipe her fingers furiously on her 
pinafore. The Due de Bordeaux, perceiving the consternation 
of their visitor, held out his own little hand to be kissed, and, 
turning to his sister, observed : " Thou seest that I do not wipe 
my fingers ! " 

The little prince showed from a very early age a marked 
taste for everything military. His greatest pleasure was to 
watch the soldiers on parade, and he looked forward eagerly to 
the time when he should be big enough to command a regiment. 
By the Duchesse de Berry's orders, everything was done to 
encourage this predilection ; and in his apartments at the 
Tuileries he had a camp-bed, a sentry-box, trumpets, flags, and 
a whole arsenal of miniature weapons. At five years old, his 
favourite diversion was to bivouac in the most approved 
military fashion. Clad in the uniform of a grenadier of the 
Guard which had been made for him, with havresack, water- 
bottle, and other accoutrements, he would go out on to the lawn 
of the Elysee, light a fire, and proceed to make soup, which he 
would then send to his mother for her approval. His affecta- 
tion of manly dignity was most amusing. Once, when playing 
at soldiers with some young companions, he accidentally 
scratched the face of one of them with his little sword. 
Madame de Gontaut wished to take it away from him, but he 
1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mhioires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 231 

refused to give it up. " Never," said he, " will I surrender my 
sword to a woman ! " And, going up to the officer of the 
guard, he gravely handed the weapon to him. 

The education of the children began in 1823, and was con- 
ducted upon the most liberal lines. Besides French, they learned 
English, German, and Italian. M. Collard, who had formerly 
been one of the best masters in the Institute of the Abbe 
Gaultier, was their French teacher ; a Mile. Vauchon, who had 
travelled a great deal in Germany, lived for a time in Italy, 
and spoke both German and Italian fluently, gave them 
instruction in these languages, and they were taught English 
by a Mile, della Torre, the daughter of an Italian nobleman 
who had married an Englishwoman. As Madame de Foresta, 
the sous-gouvernante, had died towards the end of 1821, it was 
necessary to appoint a successor ; and a Mile, de Rivera, a 
Spanish lady of noble family, who had been educated in France, 
was selected. On her appointment, Charles X. created her 
Comtesse de Rivera. 

The teachers were carefully supervised by Madame de 
Gontaut, who, of course, herself undertook the moral training of 
the children, a task which she performed with a zeal and 
sagacity beyond all praise. In a long letter which she wrote 
to the Due de Riviere, gouverneur of the Due de Bordeaux, on 
the day when the little prince passed from her charge into that 
of his gouverneur, this admirable woman describes in detail the 
system of education which she had followed with her royal 
pupils. Since the system is one which many mothers and 
teachers might do well to imitate, we will cite a few passages 
from her letter, which also contains some interesting reflections 
on the character of the Due de Bordeaux : 

" It has occurred to me that it might be of interest to you 
to know, in all its details, the plan of education pursued thus 
far. 

" My only method has been constant watchfulness : profiting 
by every circumstance to improve and instruct, and never letting 
slip the occasion of a fault without encouraging reflection. I 
saw everything, I heard everything ; nothing could possibly be 
concealed from me ; the most minute details were arranged by 
me ; the faults even of the instructors were watched, the slightest 
flattery checked, the truth scrupulously and rigidly observed. 



232 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

" Monseigneur and Mademoiselle believe in me blindly, 
because I have never deceived them, even in jest. A pleasantry 
which the mind of a child cannot comprehend embarrasses him, 
robs him of his confidence, humiliates and irritates him even, if 
he believes that he is being made sport of. 

" Monseigneur requires this kind of treatment even more than 
most children ; the uprightness and generosity of his character 
incline him to take everything seriously. Whenever he thinks 
that any one has injured another, the one who has suffered be- 
comes at once the object of his liveliest interest ; he takes up 
his defence with ardour, and does not spare his reproaches ; he 
even displays on these occasions an energy which is in striking 
contrast to the natural timidity of his character. With such a 
child, I have been obliged to avoid even the shadow of an 
injustice. 

" He is very tenderly attached to Mademoiselle, and is gentle, 
obliging, and attentive to her. I have always been careful to 
avoid little childish contests between their Royal Highnesses. 
However trifling these may appear, they are apt to give rise to 
disputes, which end by insensibly embittering the character. 

" I have striven to guard their Royal Highnesses as 
much as possible from the danger of caprice, not permitting 
them to alter a decision once made, and invariably keeping my- 
self to those which I have given. 

"To obtain the confidence of Monseigneur will require time, 
tenderness, and friendship. To me, the expression of his face 
indicates what is passing in his mind ; he speaks little of his 
feelings ; he has great sensitiveness, but remarkable self-control 
for his age. I have seen him suffer without complaining. 

" I have been struck by the efforts which he has made to 
overcome a timidity which I have been at especial pains to 
conquer. I have succeeded in making him understand the 
necessity for a prince to be able to talk to strangers in a noble, 
gracious, and intelligent manner. I have always endeavoured 
to deprive him of all pretext for concealing his faults ; shyness 
leads imperceptibly to dissimulation and falsehood. I am glad 
to be able to affirm that Monseigneur is scrupulously truthful. 

" I have thought it necessary, on account of the quickness of 
his temper and the high position which awaits him, to teach 
him to think before acting. The word ' justice ' has a veritable 
charm for him. I have never known a more upright character. 




MARIE CAROLINE, DUCHESSE DE BERRY, WITH HER CHILDREN, 

THE DUC DE BORDEAUX (AFTERWARDS THE COMTE DE CHAM- 

BORD) AND MADEMOISELLE 

FROM AN ENGRAVING BY DELANNOY, AFTER THE PAINTING BY F. GERARD 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 233 

" The method of teaching by means of amusement is the 
fashion now ; but it appears to me to lead to an education 
altogether superficial, and that is not what I have striven for. 
The teacher ought to explain what is necessary, but he should 
allow the pupil to exert himself, for he must learn early the 
difficulties of life and accustom himself to overcome them. 

"A little prince exposed to flattery runs a great risk of 
being considered an infant prodigy. To obviate this difficulty, 
Monseigneur and Mademoiselle have often shared their courses 
with children of nearly the same age. I have tried in this way 
to accustom them to see success in others without envy, and to 
obtain it without vanity. I have exercised particular care to 
admit to this intimacy in their studies and games only such 
children as were well and carefully brought up, and even those 
of whom I have felt the most sure were carefully watched. 

" In order to create between the royal children a useful 
emulation and fix their attention, I made it a rule that, in their 
lessons, and particularly in their courses, counters should be 
given as a reward for correct answers, and should be taken 
away for faults of memory and judgment. At the end of each 
month, the King and Madame pay for the counters, and the 
money is devoted to charitable objects, such as clothing poor 
men, women, and children. These charities were always reserved 
for the festivals of Saint-Louis and Saint-Henri. On these two 
days, distributions were made to indigent people, selected by 
the Sisters of Charity. . . Last year, three hundred francs were 
wanting to make up to the sum for this charity. Monseigneur 
and Mademoiselle asked that they might do double lessons, and 
in a few days they had earned this small sum, so much zeal and 
ardour did these amiable children employ to obtain it. 

" I have tried, at all times, to imbue Monseigneur's mind 
with the principles of religion ; I have made use of it as a check, 
I have presented it as a hope. Being of opinion that the 
prince's tender age did not yet permit of dogmatic instruction, I 
leave to more skilful hands a task which is more proper for 
them than for me." 

Madame de Gontaut's greatest anxiety was to protect her 
charges from the snares of flattery, always so much to be 
dreaded in the case of royal children. " In accustoming them 
to the society of select and distinguished persons," she writes in 



234 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

her Mfrnoires, " it was necessary not only to teach them to be 
courteous, but also to make them appreciate, at its true value, 
the worth of praise earned and deserved — a lesson so useful to 
princes ; and, above all, I desired to place them on their guard 
against flattery, which is so sweet to the ear, but so injurious to 
the heart. This difficult task was a source of great embarrass- 
ment to me, when chance offered me a precious opportunity 
of giving them the lesson which I had in mind." 

She then relates how one day, during recreation-time, she 
was informed that some persons who had been recommended 
to her requested to be allowed to see their Royal Highnesses. 
The gouvernante, feeling that she could not refuse, sent for the 
children. The latter, cross at being obliged to leave their games, 
were not very communicative, but, nevertheless, received a perfect 
avalanche of compliments, their amiability, their beauty, their 
complexions, and even their hair, all being the subject of the 
most extravagant praise. These exaggerations embarrassed the 
children and greatly displeased Madame de Gontaut, who cut 
short the interview as quickly as possible. As the strangers 
were leaving, a half-open door gave the gouvernante and her 
charges an opportunity of hearing their conversation. 

" It was really not worth while to come so far to see so 
little," remarked an old lady, in a dissatisfied tone. " I should 
think not," said a big boy ; " they had hardly two words to say 
to thank papa and mamma for all the compliments they showered 
upon them. You made me laugh, papa, when you said : ' What 
a lovely complexion and what beautiful hair ! ' She is as pale 
as an egg and cropped like a boy ! " " That is quite true," 
rejoined the old lady who had first spoken. "Doctor, she 
would be the better for one of your medicines. And then, 
besides, they are very small for their age." " Did you see the 
governess ? " said the big boy again. " She was not pleased 
when you complimented her on the sweet disposition of her 
pupils ; and, all the time, I noticed that they were teasing one 
another. But they received compliments enough, any way." 

The rest of the conversation was lost in the distance. 

The poor children, who had heard every word, were petrified 
with astonishment. " Oh ! how wicked they are ! " they cried. 
"They are simply flatterers," replied Madame de Gontaut. 
" But they kept praising us so, and they said over and over 
again that we were so pretty, for I heard them perfectly well ! " 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 235 

exclaimed Mademoiselle. " And then to wish to give me 
medicine, because they thought me pale and ugly ! Oh ! it is 
too much ! Now I understand at last what flattery means : it 
means saying the exact opposite of the truth ; but it is a 
wicked thing, and I shall always remember it." 

" This lesson," concludes Madame de Gontaut, " was provi- 
dential. I could never have made them understand as they 
both did now." 2 

In accordance with the ancient custom of the Royal House 
of France, the Due de Bordeaux remained under the care of 
Madame de Gontaut until the commencement of his seventh 
year, at which age he passed into the hands of his gouvemeur, 
the Due de Riviere, who was henceforth to superintend his 
education. On October 15, 1826, the little prince was formally 
delivered into the care of the duke by Charles X., in the Salle 
du Trone at Saint-Cloud, in the presence of all the members of 
the Royal Family and the grand officers of the Crown. After 
the boy had been examined by the Court doctors, who pro- 
nounced him to be in perfect health, the King called the new 
gouvemeur and said to him : " Due de Riviere, I give you a 
great proof of esteem and confidence in remitting to your care 
the education of the child whom Providence has given us, who 
is also the Child of France. You will bring, I am sure, to these 
important functions a zeal and a prudence which will give you 
a claim to my gratitude, to that of the family, and to that of 
France." 

Then his Majesty turned towards Madame de Gontaut, who 
had just been raised to the rank of duchess, as a reward for her 
services, thanked her for the pains she had bestowed upon the 
education of the Due de Bordeaux, and begged her to establish 
new claims to his gratitude, by continuing and completing that 
of Mademoiselle. 

Simultaneously with the Due de Riviere's nomination to 
the post of gouvemeur, the King named as sous-gouverncars 
the Marquis de Barbencpis and the Comte de Maupas. Mgr. 
Thalin, Bishop of Strasbourg, was appointed preceptor, and the 
Abbe Martin de Noirlieu, Almoner of the Ecole Polytechnique, 
and M. de Barande assistant-preceptors. Though both the 
gouvernetcr and preceptor were loyal and worthy men, their 
selection, from a political point of view, was most unfortunate. 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



236 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Riviere was regarded by the public as a servile associate of the 
Church party, while the Bishop of Strasbourg was an avowed 
friend of the Jesuits. "In their hands, the Due de Bordeaux 
appeared like a hostage given by the Monarchy to the priest- 
hood " ; * and the Opposition journals, in publishing the nomina- 
tions, declared that they were " confounded by such imprudence 
and afflicted by such blindness." 

Whatever opinion might be held of the wisdom of committing 
a future King of France to the care of a nobleman of such pro- 
nounced political views, the Due de Riviere proved a most 
devoted guardian. He scarcely ever quitted his pupil's side, by 
day or night, slept in his chamber, and was only once known 
to accept an invitation to dinner. He did not, however, long 
survive his appointment, as he died in the early spring of 1828. 
During his illness, which lasted several weeks, the little Due de 
Bordeaux, who had become much attached to his gouverneur, 
was very sad. One day, when he learned that the sick man 
had passed a bad night, he said to his sister : " Ah well ! let us 
play to-day the games which do not amuse us ! " Another day, 
when a trifling improvement in the duke's condition was 
announced, he declared his intention of celebrating it by an 
illumination, and, although it was the middle of the day, 
proceeded to light all the candles in the salon. 2 

The Due de Riviere was succeeded by the Baron de Damas, 
who had distinguished himself in the Spanish expedition, and 
had been first Minister for War and afterwards for Foreign 
Affairs in the Villele Government. The baron was a brave 
soldier and a worthy man, who fulfilled his duties with as much 
zeal and devotion as his predecessor ; but his views were even 
more extreme, and during the Revolution and the Empire he 
had served in the ranks of the Russian army, a circumstance 
which did not tend to increase the popularity of the appointment, 
which was most severely criticised. 

1 Lamartine. 

2 Imbert de Saint- Amand, la Duckesse de Berry et la Cour de Charles X. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Tour of the Duchesse de Berry in the West of France — Visit to Chambord — 
Frenzied enthusiasm of the Vendeens at Saint-Florent — Sainte-Anne d'Auray — 
Madame in the Bocage — Reception at Bordeaux — Her stay in the Pyrenees — Her 
campaign of 1832 the natural consequence of the impressions concerning the loyalty 
of Western France which she had conceived during this tour — Decline of the 
popularity of Charles X. — The review of April 29, 1827 — "A das les jisuitesses J '" — 
Disbanding of the National Guard — Fall of the Villele Government — The 
Martignac Ministry — Incurable illusions of the King as to the true sentiments of the 
nation. 

THE Duchesse de Berry had long desired to make a 
tour in the West of France ; and in the summer of 
1828 she determined to undertake it. On June 16, 
accompanied by the Duchesse de Reggio, the Marquise de 
Podenas, dame pour accompagner, and the Comte de Mesnard, 
she left Paris, and arrived two days later at Chambord, where 
she was received by the Comte Adrien de Calonne, who, it will 
be remembered, had first conceived the project of the national 
subscription, thanks to which this historic chateau had become 
the property of the Due de Bordeaux. She entered the 
chateau by the Place d'Armes and the Porte-Royale. Above 
the gateway she read the following greeting : — 

" Ce vieux sejour des rois pleurait le long outrage 
Dont le temps a terni son antique splendeur, 
Mais, comme un jour serein perce un sombre nuage, 
Tu parais, tu lui rends l'espoir et le bonheur." 

The princess was enchanted with Chambord. She visited 
the apartments of Frangois I. and Louis XIV. ; admired the 
inlaid floors and the sculptured wainscots ; mounted the famous 
double staircase to the platform of the lantern, the highest point 
of the chateau, which commands a magnificent view over the 
immense park, and, before descending, inscribed there with a 
gimlet her name and the date. Finally, in the presence of the 
Bishop of Blois, who had come to bestow his episcopal blessing 
upon the work of restoration, she laid the first stone of the new 

237 



238 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

works, with an auger and trowel which had been specially 
made for the occasion, and which the bishop solemnly presented 
to her. 

On leaving Chambord, Madame proceeded to Blois, where 
she was shown the Salle des Etats, the room in which Henri de 
Lorraine, Due de Guise, had been assassinated, and the tower 
where Catherine de' Medici used to consult the astrologers. On 
June 21, she arrived at Saumur, where she assisted at a military 
tournament which the School of Cavalry gave in her honour 
and presented the prizes. The next day saw her at Angers, 
passing through avenues of triumphal arches, and on the 22nd 
she reached Saint-Florent, the little town which, in 1793, had 
given the signal for the rising of la Vendee, and where 
the Vendeen army had operated its celebrated passage of the 
Loire. 

Madame was escorted across the river by a flotilla of gaily- 
decorated boats, and, on disembarking, found herself in the 
midst of a camp of five thousand armed Vendeens, all of whom 
had taken part in the terrible war of 1793 or in the insurrection 
of 181 5 against Napoleon. The most frenzied enthusiasm 
prevailed ; the whole population of the town and of the sur- 
rounding villages seemed to have assembled to welcome her; 
and white banners waved from the houses, the belfries of the 
churches, the tallest trees, and even from the cemeteries where 
the heroic dead reposed, as though inviting them to rejoice that 
a princess of the House for which they had laid down their 
lives had come to render homage to their fidelity. 

The duchess visited the church of Saint-Florent, where she 
heard Mass, made a pilgrimage to the tombs of the Vendeen 
leaders Cathelineau and Bonchamp, whose widow was presented 
to her, and then embarked on a steamer and proceeded down 
the Loire to Nantes. The inhabitants of the villages on either 
bank greeted her with loud acclamations and the waving of 
white banners as she passed ; and such was their eagerness to 
catch a glimpse of the mother of the Due de Bordeaux, that, 
wherever the river was too broad to permit them to distinguish 
her features, they had overcome the difficulty by building a 
sort of pier of boats, extending far out into the stream. 

Nantes was reached at seven o'clock, and since the Prefecture, 
at which she was to stay, was but a short distance from the 
wharf, she proceeded thither on foot, followed by a cheering 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 239 

crowd. The following day, she received the municipal authorities 
and several deputations, and then left for Savenay, where she 
saw the monument erected to the victims of the retreat of 
December 1793. On the 24th, she repaired to Sainte-Anne 
d'Auray, a spot venerated by every pious Breton, and presented 
a beautifully-chased silver lamp to the chapel. Naturally, she 
did not fail to visit the " Champ des Martyrs " where, thirty- 
three years before, the hnigrts taken at Quiberon had been shot 
in cold blood. When the princess knelt to pray before the 
mausoleum erected to their memory, the crowd which had 
gathered to welcome her chanted the De Profandis. 

After visiting Lorient and Rennes, on June 28 Madame re- 
turned to Nantes. She reviewed the troops of the garrison, 
made the round of the convents, factories, and hospitals, and 
attended a splendid ball which was given in her honour. Then, 
after a visit to the Comtesse de Charette, sister-in-law of the 
celebrated Vendeen chief, at la Tremiceniere, she entered the 
Bocage, as the interior of la Vendue is called. 

In this wild tract of country most of the roads were im- 
practicable for carriages, and she had therefore to travel on 
horseback. The princess, however, was an admirable horse- 
woman, and, dressed in a green riding-habit — the colour of the 
Vendeen uniform — and a grey felt hat with a gauze veil, she 
rode from village to village, accepting with equal graciousness 
the hospitality of both noble and peasant ; visiting the battle- 
fields ; laying the foundation-stones of monuments intended to 
perpetuate the memory of the heroes of 1793 and 181 5 ; 
assisting at rustic fetes, and delighting great and humble alike 
by her affability, her good-humour, which made light of all the 
inconveniences to which she was obliged to submit, her 
genuine interest in their troublous but glorious past, and her 
naive pleasure at their testimonies of loyalty and devotion. 

At the beginning of the second week in July, she left 
la Vendue, and journeyed southwards by way of Lucon, 
la Rochelle, Rochefort and Blaye (Ah ! how little did she 
imagine that its citadel, whose guns were now thundering in 
her honour, would one day serve for her prison !) to Bordeaux, 
where she arrived on October 14. The " faithful city " gave 
her, as might be expected, a magnificent reception. When, on 
the evening of her arrival, she attended a gala performance at 
the theatre, the applause was positively deafening ; the statue 



240 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

of the Due de Bordeaux, crowned with laurels, was borne in 
triumph on to the stage, and a cantata in honour of mother and 
son was sung : — 

• 

" Qu'un orgueil pur et legitime 
Brille sur ton front triomphant, 
Bordeaux ! C'est la mere sublime 
De ton miraculeux enfant ! etc., etc." 

Qn the 18th, she left Bordeaux, and on the following day 
arrived at Pau, where she visited the chateau, in which Henri IV. 
was born, and was shown his cradle. At Pau, she remained for 
several days, and then, having assumed the green and white 
beretta and red sash of the Bearnese peasantry, continued 
her journey to Bayonne, where another splendid welcome 
awaited her. 

Madame remained several weeks in the Pyrenees,* most of 
the time being passed at Bagneres-de-Luchon, from which she 
made frequent excursions, climbing the most difficult peaks with 
a courage which delighted the mountaineers. On September 19, 
she set out on her return journey, and travelled by way of Tou- 
louse, Montauban, Cahors, Limoges, and Orleans to Paris, where 
she arrived on October 1. 

Her tour which had lasted three and a half months had 
been one long ovation ; everywhere she had been welcomed with 
the utmost enthusiasm ; everywhere she had received the most 
prodigal assurances of loyalty and affection. Poor princess ! 
How could she know that those triumphal arches, those 
magnificent fetes, those flattering odes, those thunderous 
cheers, were but the tribute which an emotional nation is 
always ready to pay to the idol of the hour ? How could she • 
know that when, in her day of trial, she should call upon the 
same people who had welcomed her so rapturously to translate 
their protestations of fidelity into deeds, she should find all 
save, the Vendeens, not only cold and indifferent, but positively 
hostile ? As it was, the magnificent reception she had received 
•..lit upon her mind the most profound impression, and convinced 
her that, come what might, the loyalty of the western provinces 
was unshakable. Her campaign of 1832 was, in ! fact, the 
natural and logical consequence of the tour of 1828. 

If in the western departments no sign of disaffection was as 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 241 

yet apparent, in Paris the popularity of Charles X., so great at 
the beginning of his reign, was declining every day. The 
Opposition, it is true, did not as yet dare to assail the King 
personally, and confined the expression of its resentment at his 
Majesty's increasing subservience to the " priestly party " to 
bitter denunciations of his Ministers, but the public made no 
pretence of distinguishing between them. In the streets, no 
matter how amiably the King might smile upon his subjects, 
few acclamations greeted him, and he returned to the Tuileries 
deeply mortified by the coldness of his reception. At the 
theatres — where, to recall a remark of Napoleon, one felt the 
pulse of public opinjon — any hostile allusion to royalty was 
always sure of a. 'round of applause. In the salons, clear- 
sighted people shook their, heads and observed that history was 
repeating itself, and that the Bourbons would end like the 
Stuarts. 

But the King, in h-is fatal blindness, could not bring himself 
to recognise the danger of the course he was pursuing, and 
attributed his growing unpopularity to the intrigues of the 
Liberal party and the persistent misrepresentation of the 
journals. In the early spring of 1827, the Government sub- 
mitted to the Chambers the famous " loi d' amour" a measure 
which was nothing less than the suppression of the liberty of the 
Press ; but the outcry against it was so violent that they were 
compelled to withdraw it (April 17). A few days later (April 29), 
Charles X. held the annual review of the National Guard in' the 
Champ de Mars. While riding along the ranks of the seventh 
legion, he was greeted with cries of " Vive la Charte ! " The King, 
until that moment all smiles and good-humour, changed counte- 
nance and frowned angrily. " What! " cried a National Guard 
who was standing near him, " does your Majesty then consider 
the cry of ' Vive la Charte ! ' an insult ? " " Gentlemen," replied 
the King, sternly, " I have come here to receive homage, and not 
lessons." This answer produced a good effect ; the troops 
shouted " Vive le Roi ! " and the v review passed off without furtl 
unpleasantness. But when the King and his staff had depart 
and the Dauphine and the Duchesse de Berry, who were accused 
by the public of great complaisance for the clergy, were prepar- - 
ing to follow, they were assailed by angry shouts of " A das les 
ministres ! a bas les jesuites ! a bas les jesuitesses /" And one 
of- the legions on its way back to barracks indulged in hostile 



tWy 

rtlktf 






242 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

demonstrations before the windows of the Ministries of Finance 
and Justice. 

In consequence of these manifestations, Charles X., on the 
advice of Villele and the majority of the Ministers, decided to 
disband the National Guard, by which step he not only pro- 
claimed to all France the unpopularity of the Crown with the 
citizens of the capital, but inflicted a bitter humiliation upon a 
great force of armed and disciplined men, the vast majority of 
whom had up to this moment been at heart perfectly loyal. 
The re-establishment of the censorship of the Press further 
increased the unpopularity of the King and his advisers. 

In the autumn, the King created a batch of seventy-six new 
peers, — all avowed reactionaries — and, in the delusive hope of 
obtaining in the Lower House a majority favourable to his 
policy, dissolved the Chambers. The elections, however, proved 
disastrous to the Government, and Villele, faced with the alter- 
native of a cotip d'Etat, or resignation, had sufficient good sense 
to choose the latter course.. 

His Ministry was succeeded, in the first days of 1828, by a 
cabinet of moderate Royalists, equally loyal to the Crown and 
the Charter, under the leadership of the Vicomte de Martignac, 
a man of great probity and considerable ability, who had been 
initiated into affairs of State by the late Due de Richelieu, and, 
like him, was sincerely desirous of reconciling the Monarchy and 
the people. The Due de Berry's old friend, La Ferronays, was 
Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

By the removal of the censorship of the Press, the suppres- 
sion of the Jesuit seminaries, and other concessions to Liberal 
opinion, the new Government did not a little to restore the 
waning popularity of the Crown, while abroad it upheld the 
honour of France by the occupation of the Morea, which assured 
the triumph of Greek independence. But it led a painful exist- 
ence, forced as it was to combat the extremists on both sides ; 
while the King disliked both Martignac and his policy, and gave 
him only a feeble and intermittent support. During the late 
summer of 1828, Charles X. paid a visit to Alsace and Lorraine, 
visiting Metz, Strasbourg, and other important towns. He met 
with a splendid reception, which served to aggravate the incur- ... 
able illusions which he entertained as to the true sentiments of 
the nation, for he attributed the enthusiasm of the inhabitants 
to their personal attachment to himself, whereas it was largely 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 243 

an expression of satisfaction at the more liberal policy which 
had lately been inaugurated. From that moment, he thought 
only of getting rid of the Ministry which stood between him 
and ruin, and replacing it by one which would be prepared to 
govern in conformity with his own ideas. 



CHAPTER XX 

The Carnival of 1829 — The Mary Stuart ball — Calumny concerning the Duchesse 
de Berry and her first equerry, the Comte de Mesnard — Last visit of Madame to Dieppe 
— Madame and the Orleans family — Project of marriage between the Due de Chartres 
and Mademoiselle — Journey of the Duchesse de Berry to the South of France to meet 
the King and Queen of the Two Sicilies — Critical condition of affairs — The Martignac 
Ministry is dismissed, and succeeded by one of avowed reactionaries under the leader- 
ship of the Prince Jules de Polignac — Widespread indignation and alarm — The 
"Address of the 221 " — The King prorogues, and then dissolves the Chamber of 
Deputies — Visit of the King and Queen of the Two Sicilies to Paris — The ball at the 
Palais- Royal. 



A 



LL unconscious of the terrible change which a little 
more than a year was to effect in her fortunes, the 
Duchesse de Berry plunged with renewed zest into 
the gaieties of the capital. The Carnival of 1829 was a most 
brilliant one ; an unusual number of distinguished foreigners 
were visiting Paris, England being particularly well represented, 
and Society surpassed itself in the splendour and novelty of 
the fetes which it offered them. 

During the preceding winter, Madame had given two balls, 
each of which had been a great success. The first was a " bal 
candide" at which all the ladies had appeared dressed entirely 
in white, with high, powdered coiffures ; the second was a " bal 
turc" at which the costumes of the Orient had been worn. 
Encouraged by these triumphs, she now determined to organise 
a fete which should altogether eclipse her previous efforts and 
be the talk of all fashionable Paris. 

Early in 1829, the Duchesse de Berry had attended a costume- 
ball given by Madame de Gontaut, at which the guests had 
appeared as personages of the later Valois period. This ball 
had, it would appear, been in a great measure inspired by Dumas 
pfre's Henri III. et sa cour, which had been recently produced 
at the Thdatre-Francais with costumes and accessories of un- 
usual splendour. The history of France was at this time 
dethroning the Pompeys and Pharaohs of the First Empire ; but 
it must not be supposed that all the ladies adopted the Valois 

244 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 245 

dress for the mere pleasure of displaying a national erudition. 
No ; it was because the lords and ladies of the sixteenth cen- 
tury had worn the leg-of-mutton sleeve, and the leg-of-mutton 
sleeve had made its appearance in the modes, and all the mer- 
veilleuses were in raptures over this novelty. 1 

Much delighted by what she saw at Madame de Gontaut's, 
the Duchesse de Berry forthwith resolved to repeat the experi- 
ment, of course, on an infinitely grander scale, and to revive 
for a few hours the whole Court of the Valois, during the brief 
reign of Mary Stuart. The idea was received with enthusiasm, 
and the Cabinet des Estampes at the Bibliotheque-Royale was 
besieged all day long by fashionable ladies demanding prints 
and drawings which illustrated the costume of the period to be 
represented. Some of these fair dames were highly indignant 
when the harassed officials explained that an order from the 
Minister for the Fine Arts was required before they could be 
permitted to carry them off to show to their modistes and 
milliners, and argued that, however proper such a rule might be 
for the general public, it could not possibly be intended to 
apply to' ladies of rank. Finding the officials inexorable, they 
departed in search of the Minister, who spent a busy time 
signing the orders that were demanded of him. 

The event so eagerly anticipated took place on Shrove-Mon- 
day, March 2, in the apartments of the Children of France at the 
Pavilion de Marsan, the episode chosen being the arrival of Marie 
de Lorraine, widow of James V. of Scotland, at the Court of 
France, to visit her daughter, Mary Stuart. The interest which 
it aroused had been increased by the fact that the Duchesse de 
Berry had conceived the happy idea that, wherever possible, 
the nobles of the Courts of France and Scotland should be 
represented by their descendants. Thus, the Comtes de 
Brissac, de Cosse, and de Biron represented the three marshals 
whose names they bore ; the Comte Charles de Mornay ap- 
peared as Duplessis-Mornay, with a doublet and a sword 
which had actually been worn by his celebrated ancestor ; 
the Marquis of Douglas, afterwards Duke of Hamilton, as the 
Duke of Chatellerault-Hamilton, and so forth, The Duchesse 
de Berry herself, of course, personified Mary Stuart ; the Due 
de Chartres, now a handsome youth in his nineteenth year, 
Francois II. ; Lady Stuart of Rothesay, wife of the British 

1 Henri Bouchet, le Luxe Fran$ais : la Restauration. 



246 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Ambassador in Paris, Marie de Lorraine ; the Marquis de 
Podenas, Catherine de' Medici ; the Comtesse de Juigne, Jeanne 
d'Albret, Queen of Navarre ; the Comtesse Henri de Biron, 
Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Savoy ; the Comtesse de 
Noailles, the Princesse de Cond6 ; the Duchesse de Caylus, 
Diane de Poitiers ; * the Comte de Mesnard, Gaspard de 
Coligny ; the Baron de Charette, Francois de Lorraine ; the 
Comte de Rosambo, one of the handsomest men at Court, 
Henri le Balafrt ; while four young English ladies, Misses 
Baring, Caulfield, Acton, and Pole-Carew, represented the four 
Maries. The King, the Dauphin and Dauphine, and the 
Duchesse d'Orleans were present, though not in costume. 

The entrance of the four queens, Mary Stuart, Marie de 
Lorraine, Catherine de' Medici, and Jeanne d'Albret, was an- 
nounced by the band of the Gardes du corps, which preceded 
them. The cortege was magnificent, and the dresses of the prin- 
cesses were simply blazing with gems, for they wore not only 
their own jewels, but a part of those of the Crown, which the 
Dauphine had lent for the occasion. The portrait of a lady in 
the Galerie d'Orleans at the Palais-Royal, for long believed to 
be Mary Stuart, but which the best modern authorities on the 
sixteenth century have identified with the Princesse de Cond6, 
beloved by Henry III., had furnished the model for the Duchesse 
de Berry's costume, which consisted of a long robe of blue 
velvet trimmed with ermine, opening on to a petticoat of white 
satin. Her shoulders were framed by a high collarette of silver 
net, and a crown of diamonds scintillated upon her head. 

Although, in point of beauty, the little princess could hardly 
be said to personify Mary Stuart, it was generally admitted 
that in grace and dignity she left little to be desired. 2 The 
Due de Chartres, representing Francois II., met her at the 
entrance to the ball-room, on two sides of which seats had been 
placed for the ladies who had been invited to witness the fete. 
At the princess's desire, these had adopted a uniform costume 
of white satin and silver gauze, and when, on the arrival of the 
royal procession, they all rose spontaneously from their seats, 

1 To introduce Diane de Poitiers into thei fete was, of course, to take a decided 
liberty with history, since the favourite of Henri II. had been banished from Court 
immediately after the death of her royal lover, nor was she ever permitted to 
return. 

2 Madame de Boigne, however, as usual, refuses to echo the chorus of praise, and 
declares that " uo one was ever more successful in her efforts to look a fright." 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 247 

this freshness of tone produced a charming effect. The Due de 
Chartres, who wore a cap with a white plume and a doublet of 
blue velvet decorated with gold ornaments, advanced with 
Madame to a high estrade erected at the end of the ball-room, 
upon which the throne had been prepared, and gave her his 
hand to mount the steps. She motioned to him to sit beside 
her, but the youth, doffing his plumed cap and bowing low 
before the princess, exclaimed gallantly : " Madame, I know my 
place." And, amidst general applause, he took his stand 
behind the throne. 

Among the British nobility then in Paris who had been 
invited to take part in the fete, was the old Marquis of Huntly. 
The marquis in his youth had been what was then considered 
a good dancer, and had had the honour of opening a similar 
ball with Marie Antoinette. Charles X., remembering this, 
asked him to open this ball with Mademoiselle ; and the gallant 
nobleman and the little princess of nine danced a minuet 
together, to the great delight of the Court. 

The ball was a brilliant success — a veritable resurrection of 
the sumptuous fetes of the sixteenth century — and well deserved 
that Eugene Lamy, a young painter very much in vogue at this 
time, should have undertaken the task of perpetuating its 
splendours. This he did in a series of twenty-six water-colour 
drawings, which were lithographed and published in an album. 
Four of them represent different incidents at the ball, while the 
remainder are representations of the principal personages who 
took part in it. 

The popularity of the Duchesse de Berry with all classes of 
society did not prevent her from being the victim of a good 
deal of malicious gossip. Nor is this altogether surprising. 
In the first place, she had lost her husband when she was 
barely twenty-one, and young widows are generally supposed 
to stand in need of consolation. Does not St. Jerome himself 
affirm it ? In the second, she was a foreigner, and few foreign 
princesses who married into the Royal Family of France have 
not, at one time or another, been the object of unpleasant 
insinuations. They brought from the country of their origin 
customs and habits which were not French, and which the bulk 
of the nation regarded with disapproval ; and this in itself was 
quite sufficient to set tongues wagging, as witness the case of 



248 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

poor Marie Antoinette, who could never escape from the solemn 
pomps of Versailles to enjoy the " simple life " amid the groves 
of Trianon, without being suspected of some ulterior motive. 
Finally, Madame possessed unusual independence of character ; 
she disliked the monotony and the constraint of Court life ; she 
wanted freedom, she wanted variety ; she liked to choose her 
friends from those who interested and amused her, without 
troubling much about the social position which they might 
happen to occupy ; and not infrequently she both spoke and 
acted in a way which, though perfectly lawful, was certainly 
not expedient, and upon which maliciously-disposed persons 
did not fail to place the worst construction. 

We have spoken in an early chapter of the confidence 
reposed by both the Due and Duchesse de Berry in the Comte de 
Mesnard, first equerry to the princess, who was regarded as the 
Mentor of the little court of the Elysee. After the death of 
the duke, it was but natural that the young widow should turn 
to this sage counsellor for the advice she needed, and it appears 
to have been her practice to consult him in every difficulty. 
This entailed a degree of intimacy between them which was 
certainly somewhat unusual in the case of a princess and a 
gentleman of her Household, but which one might have sup- 
posed the count's age — he was born in the same year as 
Napoleon — and the well-known gravity of his character, would 
have sufficed to exempt from all suspicion of gallantry. 

No reasonable doubt, indeed, now exists that their relations 
were simply such as might have existed between a father and 
daughter. " You have always been like a father to me," writes 
the princess to the count in 1833 ; while in another letter she 
thanks him for " having known how to tell her occasionally dis- 
agreeable truths, such as are not very often told to princes." V At 
the same time, it would appear, that Madame 's manner towards 
her first equerry was hardly such as would have been adopted by 
a princess who was very solicitous for her reputation, and that the 
latter was very far from reticent as to the favour and confidence 
with which his royal mistress honoured him ; and eventually it 
began to be whispered that Mesnard's official functions were 
not the only ones which he discharged at the Pavilion de 
Marsan and Rosny. If we are to believe Madame de Boigne, 
whose statements in regard to the Duchess de Berry must 

1 Vicomte de Reiset, Marie- Caroline, Duchesse de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 249 

always be accepted with extreme reserve, the rumour reached 
the ears of the Royal Family, who, though they did not doubt 
the princess's innocence, were " persuaded of the extreme indis- 
cretion of her conduct," and " the King was often heard to 
reproach her with the utmost violence." Outside a small circle, 
however, the scandal would not seem to have found any cre- 
dence, for most people had the sense to see in Mesnard merely 
a kind of Mentor ; nor was it until Madeline's imprisonment at 
Blaye that it assumed formidable dimensions. 

The tour which the Duchesse de Berry had made in the 
West of France in the summer of 1828 had prevented her that 
year from visiting Dieppe, but she did not fail to return to the 
old Norman town in 1829. It was, though she little suspected 
it at the time, to be her last visit. 

Madame arrived on August 6, accompanied by her little 
daughter, and was joined, on the 8th, by the Dauphine, who 
remained several days with her, which seems to be a singular 
commentary on the assertion of Madame de Boigne that " the 
mutual dislike of the two princesses was constantly increasing." 
The presence of three members of the Royal Family at Dieppe 
at the same time attracted a great number of visitors, and a 
correspondent of the Monitenr wrote that " our town at this 
moment resembles a little Paris, owing to the number of car- 
riages and of elegant ladies who are to be seen on foot or on 
horseback." 

Among the attractions which rendered a sojourn at Dieppe 
so pleasant for Madame was the neighbourhood of the Orleans 
family, whose custom it was to pass the summer months at 
their Norman home, the Chateau d'Eu. Nothing had as yet 
occurred to disturb the friendly relations which had existed 
since the princess's arrival in France between her and the 
younger branch of the Royal House, and, whenever she came 
to Dieppe, they never failed to exchange visits. In the summer 
of 1829 the Orleans were as usual at Eu, and, as they prided 
themselves on their democratic habits, they came over to 
Dieppe to visit Madame in a big char-a-banc, large enough to 
contain the whole family. It was remarked on this occasion 
that the young Due de Chartres paid the most assiduous 
attentions to the Duchesse de Berry and Mademoiselle ; and, 
in point of fact, a marriage between the prince and his little 



250 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

cousin, though not officially announced, had long been decided 
upon. 1 

The chief incidents of the Duchesse de Berry's last visit to 
Dieppe were a ball which the town gave in honour of Made- 
moiselle, and the inauguration, in the presence of their Royal 
Highnesses, of a monument commemorating Henri IV.'s victory 
at Arques. Detachments from the troops quartered at Dieppe 
and in the neighbourhood attended the ceremony, and Madame 
complimented them on the inscriptions which they had erected 
over their tents. On one was : " The young Henri will find 
again the arquebusiers of Henri IV." On another: "The 12th 
will always rally to the white plume." And on a third : " Two 
Henris, the same love, the same devotion." 

How much were such expressions of loyalty worth twelve 
months later ! 

Madame returned from Dieppe in the middle of September, 
and, three weeks later, started on a journey to the South, to 
meet her father, Francis I. of the Two Sicilies, her stepmother, 
Queen Maria Isabella, and her half-sisters, Luisa and Christina. 
The King and Queen were conducting Christina to Spain, where 
she was to become the third wife of Ferdinand VII ; and Luisa, 
who had married the Infant Don Francisco de Paula, younger 
brother of Ferdinand, was to await them with her husband at 
the French frontier. The Duchesse de Berry had seen none of 
her relatives since her departure from Naples thirteen years 
before, and she had, of course, joyfully embraced this oppor- 
tunity of meeting them again. 

Leaving Saint-Cloud on October 10, she arrived on the 
1 8th at Valence, where she found her half-sister Luisa and Don 
Francisco. With them she proceeded to Lyons, in which city 
a splendid reception had been prepared her, and thence to 
Grenoble, where they were to await their Sicilian Majesties, 
who arrived on October 31. The meeting between Madame 
and her relatives, after so long a separation, was a very touching 
one, and the princess did not take leave of them again until 

1 The project of a marriage between the Due de Chartres and a daughter of the 
Duchesse de Berry had been discussed between the two families even before Made- 
moiselle had arrived upon the scene, and duly communicated to the prospective 
bridegroom, who graciously condescended to approve of it. When the little duke 
heard the first gun which announced the birth of the princess, he is said to have 
exclaimed : "It is my wife or my King who comes into the world." 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 251 

Perthus, on the Spanish frontier, was reached. She then set 
out on her return journey to Paris, stopping at Perpignan, 
Montpellier, Tarascon, Aries, Orange, and several other towns 
on her way, being everywhere welcomed with great enthusiasm, 1 
and reached the Tuileries on November 28. Her reception in 
the South had been scarcely less flattering than the one which 
had been accorded her in the West the previous year, and had 
tended to confirm the pleasing illusions which she entertained 
as to the loyalty of the people to the reigning dynasty. The 
idea of suspecting the sincerity of these demonstrations of 
fidelity never seems to have crossed her mind. 

The sands of the Monarchy were, however, fast running 
out. At the beginning of August 1829, the defeat of the 
Martignac Ministry upon a local government bill furnished 
Charles X. with an excellent pretext for dismissing it, and 
entrusting the management of affairs to the Prince Jules de 
Polignac, a son of the lady who had exercised so unfortunate 
an influence over Marie Antoinette, and a Cabinet composed 
for the most part of men whose reactionary views were as 
notorious as those of their chief. Such a contemptuous defiance 
of public opinion by the Crown could only be interpreted as 
the prelude to a coup cFEtat, and aroused the most profound 
indignation and alarm. The attitude of the deputies, the 
language of the journals, the open preparations of the clubs 

1 We should perhaps say ?iearly everywhere, for Beziers seems to have been an 
exception. Castellane, who commanded the troops forming Madeline's escort during 
this part of the journey, tells us that the inhabitants were very sore indeed, because, 
after they had gone to the expense of constructing a triumphal arch — "a hideous 
erection " — had sacrificed twelve beautiful trees in one of the streets, because the 
sous-prtfet feared that they would be in the way of the royal cortege, and had paid 
considerable sums for the hire of windows to watch the procession, the King of the 
Two Sicilies, being in a hurry to reach the post-house, only passed through the 
outskirts of the town. In consequence, when the Duchesse de Berry visited Beziers 
on her homeward journey, they received her with marked coldness, although, to 
atone for the paternal want of consideration, she traversed a great part of the town 
on foot. 

The same writer relates an amusing instance of the way in which royal personages 
were " fleeced " in those days. Madame invited him to breakfast with her and her 
ladies at the inn at which they had alighted. Ten crowns would have been liberal 
payment for the food and wine consumed, but the innkeeper, without a blush, 
demanded six hundred francs. The Duchesse de Reggio handed the man two 
hundred and twenty, observing, "The Duchesse de Berry is quite willing to pay 
six times the value of things, but no more ! " 



252 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and political societies, which were everywhere busily organising, 
might well have convinced the King and his advisers that the 
nation was in no humour to tolerate any invasion of its liberties. 
But they seemed incapable of perceiving the precipice, much 
less of judging its depth ; and the attitude they adopted, so far 
from reassuring the public as to their intentions, only confirmed 
its suspicions. 

The King's speech at the opening of the session of 1830 
announced his Majesty's firm resolution to surmount the 
obstacles which " culpable manoeuvres " might succeed in 
raising up against his Government. To this premature and 
impolitic defiance the Chamber of Deputies responded by the 
"address of the 221," in which, while protesting its fidelity to 
the person of the King, it refused its support to the Ministry, 
although the Ministry had not as yet submitted any measure 
to which it could raise objection. The King retorted by pro- 
roguing the Chamber, a step which was immediately followed 
by a violent ferment throughout the whole country. Neither 
the old monarch nor his principal adviser, however, paid any 
heed to the popular indignation ; and, though the two most 
moderate members of the Cabinet, Chabrol and Courvoisier, 
resigned rather than share the odium of such a proceeding, at 
the end of a few weeks the prorogation was converted into a 
dissolution. 

In the spring of 1830, the King and Queen of the Two 
Sicilies, in fulfilment of a promise which they had made 
Madame when they parted from her the previous autumn, came 
to visit Paris before returning to Naples. They were received, 
at Chambord, by the Duchesse de Berry and the little Due de 
Bordeaux, whom his royal grandfather now saw for the first 
time ; and on May 20 they made their entry into Paris, where 
they were lodged at the Elysee. Francis I., who was in very 
bad health, and whose bowed head and stooping shoulders 
gave him more the appearance of a man of seventy than of 
fifty-three, spent most of his time with his sister, the Duchesse 
d'Orleans, at the Palais-Royal, and went out as little as possible ; 
but the Queen, a plump, merry little woman, visited all the 
sights of Paris under the guidance of the Duchesse de Berry ^ 
and seemed thoroughly to enjoy the splendid festivities which 
were given in their Majesties' honour. There was a reception 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 253 

at the Tuileries, a gala performance at the Opera, a grand 
shooting-party at Compiegne, fetes at Saint-Cloud and Rosny, 
and a really magnificent ball given by Madame at the Pavilion 
de Marsan. "I have never seen an entertainment better 
organised," writes Madame de Boigne, from whom praise where 
the Duchesse de Berry is concerned is praise indeed ! " The 
arrangement of the apartments necessitated the use of two 
stories, but the staircase, which was not the same by which the 
guests were admitted, had been beautifully decorated ; the 
landings had been converted into comfortable drawing-rooms, 
and the few steps by which they were separated were so hidden 
by drapery and flowers that the staircase was as crowded as 
any other room, and seemed to form an integral portion of the 
apartments." 1 

The most splendid of the fetes, however, was that given by 
the Due d'Orleans at the Palais-Royal, which was attended not 
only by the august visitors and their suite, but by Charles X., 
the princesses, and the whole Court, and must have cost the 
duke a small fortune. The galleries and spacious salons of the 
palace had been superbly decorated, and the gardens, illuminated 
throughout their whole extent by a multitude of different 
coloured lights, presented a wonderful sight. 

The other arrangements were far less satisfactory, for the 
Due d'Orleans, ever hungering for popularity, had directed that 
tickets should be sent to any one who cared to ask for them, 
and the crush was so great that it was only with the utmost 
difficulty that their Majesties were able to pass from room to 
room. Moreover, in view of the ill-feeling existing between 
Crown and people, the duke's conduct in throwing open the 
gardens to the public, and in making repeated appearances 
upon the terrace, in order to give the crowd an opportunity of 
testifying, by its acclamations, to his own popularity, was held 
to be in the worst possible taste. Many, indeed, were inclined 
to suspect that his proceedings were prompted by some deeper 
motive than mere popularity-hunting, and, any way, they did 
not fail to bear fruit. 

While the gaiety within the palace was at its height, the 
crowd outside, excited by the exhortations of certain political 
agitators, had become so turbulent that orders were given to 
clear the gardens. In the tumult which ensued, some persons 

' Memoires, 



254 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

set fire to a number of chairs, which they had piled up to the 
height of the first story ; and, a moment later, the dancers were 
startled by the cry of "fire," and saw flames shooting up to 
the windows. The panic was general, but, happily, assistance 
was soon at hand ; the flames were extinguished, and the fete 
continued. All life, however, had gone out of the proceedings, 
and people shook their heads and asked one another whether 
what had occurred that night did not depict only too well the 
alarming condition of the country. 



CHAPTER XXI 

The elections of 1830 disastrous for the Polignac Ministry — Charles X., en- 
couraged by the taking of Algiers, resolves on a coup d'Etat — The Ordinances of 
July 25, 1830 — Conversation between the King and Madame de Gontaut on the 
morning on which the Ordinances are published in the Moniteur — Reception of the 
Ordinances in Paris — Fatal optimism of the Government — The Revolution begins on 
the morning of July 27, 1830 — Unpreparedness of the Government — Formidable 
outbreak on the morning of the 28th — Mistaken tactics of Marmont, who commands 
the troops — Desperate fighting in the streets — Alarm of the Court at Saint-Cloud — 
Anguish of the Duchesse de Berry, who entreats Charles X. to allow her to go with 
her son to Paris — Childish obstinacy of the King, who refuses to promise the 
withdrawal of the Ordinances — The evening of July 28 at Saint-Cloud — Renewal of 
the fighting on the 29th; the Tuileries stormed by the insurgents — "Ah, mon 
Dieu / I see the tricolour ! " — The King still unable to realise the situation — The 
evening of July 29 at Saint-Cloud — The royal children and the wounded soldiers — 
Charles X. appoints Mortemart President of the Council, and sends him to Paris with 
the revocation of the Ordinances — But his belated concessions are received with 
derision — Arrival of the Due d'Orleans in the capital. 

EARLY in May 1830, Charles X. had made a bold bid 
for popularity by the despatch of an expedition 
against the Dey of Algiers, who had insulted the 
French consul and refused all reparation. It was hoped that 
the success of this undertaking would dazzle the pride of a 
nation always impassioned for military glory, and secure a 
majority for the Government. But the scheme was a little too 
transparent not to be seen through, and unforeseen accidents 
delayed the expected triumph until the elections were already 
half over. 

The electoral colleges had been convoked for June 20 and 
July 3. In defiance of all parliamentary principles, the King 
issued a manifesto calling on the electors to support the 
Government. But this most ill-advised action had no other 
effect than to increase the exasperation which the arbitrary 
exercise of the royal prerogative had already aroused ; the 
deputies who had voted for the address of the previous March 
were returned almost en masse, and the Opposition also wrested 

255 



256 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

a large number of seats from the Ministerialists, who found 
themselves in a minority of over 120 ! 

In the presence of this formidable result, the majority of the 
Ministers wished to tender their resignations, but the old King, 
encouraged by the taking of Algiers, news of which had reached 
Paris on July 9, and which he regarded as a judgment of God 
in favour of the royal cause, would hear of no surrender. On 
the nth, accompanied by the Dauphin, the Dauphine, and the 
Duchesse de Berry, he attended a thanksgiving service at 
Notre-Dame. The Archbishop of Paris, in celebrating the 
triumph, expressed the hope that he might soon be able to 
felicitate his Majesty on victories "not less sweet and not less 
dazzling " ; acclamations to which, in Paris at least, Charles X. 
had long been a stranger, greeted him on his way to and from 
the cathedral, and, little thinking that he was traversing for the 
last time the streets of his capital, he quitted Paris to return to 
Saint-Cloud, resolved to achieve by force what he had failed to 
accomplish by constitutional means. 

In common with most of the Bourbons, Charles X. possessed 
considerable powers of dissimulation, and, on the present 
occasion, convinced that secrecy was the one thing necessary to 
ensure success, he took every precaution that no inkling of his 
intentions should get about before the fateful moment arrived. 
" To those who spoke to him of a coup d'Etat, he said : "lam 
tired of these calumnious insinuations," and even the members 
of the Royal Family remained in profound ignorance. Prepara- 
tions for the meeting of the Chambers, which were to assemble 
on August 3, were being made as usual ; the writs summoning 
the Peers to assemble were being sent out ; the journals were 
busily speculating as to the measures which would be intro- 
duced in the approaching session ; the Dauphine was already 
established at Vichy ; the Duchesse de Berry was about to 
start for Rosny, and had arranged that, during her absence, 
Mademoiselle should go to Dieppe for the sea-bathing, and that 
the Duchesse d'Orleans and her daughters should spend a few 
days there with the little princess on their way to Eu. For 
the moment, everything seemed perfectly tranquil; nothing 
indicated that in a few days Paris would be in the throes of 
another revolution. 

But on Sunday, July 25, the Ministers assembled at Saint- 
Cloud, under the presidency of the King, and in the presence 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 257 

of the Dauphin ; and Charles X. committed the crowning folly 
of his imprudent reign by signing the four fatal Ordinances. 
The first suspended the liberty of the Press, except where 
authorisation had been secured, such authorisation to be 
renewed every three months. The second dissolved the 
Chamber which had not yet met. The third created a new 
electoral system, which reduced the number of deputies to two 
hundred and fifty-eight, and provided for election in two stages. 
The fourth convoked the electoral colleges for September 6 and 
18, and the Chambers for September 28. 

When the document was presented for his signature, the 
King took up a pen ; but, instead of signing, he laid it down 
again, and resting his elbow on the table and covering his eyes 
with his hand, remained thus for a few moments, absorbed in 
thought. Then he resumed his pen. "The more I reflect," 
said he, " the more I am convinced that it is impossible to do 
otherwise." And he signed, and the Ministers signed after him. 

The same evening, the Ordinances were sent by Chantelauze, 
the Minister for Justice, by whom they had been drafted, to the 
Moniteur, for publication in that journal on the following day. 
The editor, on reading them, was so astonished that he refused 
to print them before he had called upon the Minister, and 
received from his own lips an assurance of their authenticity. 
" I am fifty years old," said he to Chantelauze ; " I have 
witnessed the whole of the Revolution, and I am profoundly 
alarmed ! " 

No misgivings, however, troubled the mind of Charles X. 
If he had hesitated before signing the Ordinances, it was from 
reluctance to adopt such extreme measures, not because he 
entertained the smallest doubt as to the success of his coup 
d'Etat. He believed that the populace, taken by surprise and 
having neither arms nor ammunition, would be incapable of 
any resistance, and that, since the disbanding of the National 
Guard, nothing was to be feared from the bourgeoisie. So 
confident were he and the principal Ministers that the dis- 
turbances, if disturbances there were, would be confined to some 
noisy crowds which might easily be dispersed, that they had 
only some 12,000 troops to make head against the capital, 1 and 

1 But the Government believed that they had at least 18,000 men, Polignac, who 
was discharging the duties of Minister for War during the absence of Bourmont in 
Algeria, having mistaken the nominal strength of the garrison for the effective 
strength. 



258 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

had selected for the chief command Marechal Marmont, one of 
the most unpopular officers in the Army, who, moreover, was 
not even informed of his nomination until the Tuesday morning. 

With the exception of Charles X. and the Dauphin, the 
occupants of the Chateau of Saint-Cloud rose on the morning 
of the 26th without the slightest suspicion of the Ordinances 
with which the Monitiur was speedily to acquaint them. The 
weather was superb, and it had been arranged that the Due 
de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle were to visit a manufactory at 
Versailles and spend the rest of the day at the Petit-Trianon, 
where all the persons attached to their respective Households 
were to meet and dine together. The King, who intended to 
hunt with the Dauphin in the forest of Rambouillet, came to 
visit his grandchildren before setting out. He appeared pre- 
occupied, and presently, when the Baron de Damas, the Due de 
Bordeaux's gouverneur, had left the room, turned to Madame 
de Gontaut and inquired if she had read the Moniteur. The 
duchess smilingly replied that she had not, as it was a journal 
which invariably bored her. "It will not bore you to-day," 
rejoined the King, "and may possibly surprise you. Read it ; 
you will find there four Ordinances which I have just signed." 
And, counting on his fingers, he continued : " Modification of 
the Electoral Law ; suspension of constitutional government ; 
suppression of the liberty of the Press ; dissolution of the 
Chamber." Madame de Gontaut turned pale, and the King 
remarked upon it. Then, after a moment's silence, he said, 
" Well, what do you think of it ? " 

The duchess, an old and privileged friend of the Royal 
Family, did not attempt to conceal her apprehensions. " You 
have a very good heart," replied his Majesty, impatiently ; " I 
have told you so again and again ; but you are too impulsive, 
and you allow yourself to get excited." 

Madame de Gontaut begged permission to ask him one 
question, which might perhaps be indiscreet. "Speak," he 
said ; " I insist upon it." " Has not the King, in signing the 
Ordinances, violated the Charter given by his august brother 
and adopted by himself? " 

The King, who was pacing the room in great agitation, 
stopped, and, taking her by the hand, said, kindly, "No; I 
swear it on my word of honour ! I do not think so ; or, at any 
rate, they assured me that it was not so ; since Article XIV. of 




CHARLES X, KING OF FRANCE 

FROM THE PAINTING BY F. GERARD 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 259 

this same Charter gives me positive and sufficient authority to 
govern by Ordinance, in case of emergency." 

" Emergency ! Has the King come to that ? " 

" Can you doubt it ? What do you think, for instance, of 
the periodical sheets, which tend only to justify or inspire acts 
of anarchy ? Disorganisation has spread through the kingdom, 
and, you see, energetic measures must be taken to arrest its 
course. Calm yourself and enjoy this beautiful day ; I am 
going to spend it at Rambouillet, so you can see that my mind 
is perfectly at ease in regard to the result of the measures of 
which I have just spoken to you." And he kissed the children, 
and left the room, saying, " Adieu ; all will go well ; set your 
mind at rest." * 

The Moniteur was a journal which, outside parliamentary 
and official circles, was but little read ; and the announcement 
it contained that morning was not one the importance of which 
could be readily appreciated save by those with some knowledge 
of political matters. Hence, though the middle classes, and 
particularly the journalists, were filled with indignation and 
alarm, and on the Bourse the Funds fell four francs, there was, 
at first, little excitement among the mass of the people, and 
certainly nothing to foreshadow a popular rising. The fete of 
La Villette, one of the most popular of the time, attracted its 
usual crowds ; the cafes were full ; and altogether things ap- 
peared so tranquil that the Prefect of Police told the colonel of 
the Parisian gendarmerie that there was no necessity for him to 
break an engagement to dine in the suburbs which he had made 
for that evening. Late in the afternoon, a few groups began 
to form in the neighbourhood of the Palais-Royal ; cries were 
raised against the Ministers, and some stones were throwA at 
the carriage of the Prince de Polignac as it was passing along 
the Boulevard des Capucines. But these gatherings were soon 
dispersed, and in the evening all was quiet again ; the theatres 
played to excellent houses, and the salons of those Ministers 
whose reception-day it was were crowded. 

Shortly before eleven o'clock that night, Charles X. and 
the Dauphin returned to Saint-Cloud. On alighting from his 
carriage, the King inquired of Marmont what was the news 
from Paris. The marshal replied there had been no disturb- 
ance of any importance, but that the Bourse had been much 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Mbnoires. 



260 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

depressed and the Funds had fallen four francs. This intelli- 
gence did not appear to ruffle the composure of either the King 
or his son. " They will rise again," observed the latter, cheer- 
fully ; and the Duchesse de Berry, who shared the illusions of 
the Royal Family, threw herself into her father-in-law's arms 
and congratulated him upon being King at last. 

Most historians incline to the belief that if the Government 
had adopted energetic measures before the Parisians had had 
time to recover from the astonishment which the Ordinances 
had occasioned ; if it had employed the night of July 26-27 in 
seizing the Opposition journals in the press and thus preventing 
them from inflaming the public mind, and in placing all the 
troops of the garrison under arms and occupying the principal 
strategic points of the capital, Charles X. would have secured 
an easy triumph. But the infatuated monarch and his advisers, 
in the fond belief that, since the day had passed off without 
any serious disturbance, resistance was no longer to be appre- 
hended, did absolutely nothing ; and it was not until a little 
before noon on the following day (July 27) that the King sent 
for Marmont, who, as the major-general of the Royal Guard on 
duty, had slept at Saint-Cloud, informed him that there was 
" some anxiety about the tranquillity of Paris," and ordered 
him to proceed thither and take the command. 

In the capital, crowds had begun to assemble in the streets 
soon after daybreak. They did not, however, assume formidable 
proportions until about midday, when a commissary of police 
and a detachment of gendarmes visited the office of the Temps, 
in the Rue de Richelieu, in which a protest against the Ordi- 
nances, signed by over forty of the leading journalists of Paris, 
had appeared that morning, forced the doors of the printing- 
office, and seized the presses. During this operation an immense 
crowd gathered round the building, hooting and groaning, and 
soon afterwards a barricade was raised at the entrance of the 
Rue de Richelieu, opposite the portico of the Theatre-Frangais ; 
a man, said to have been an Englishman, fired upon the troops 
engaged in dispersing the people, from the window of his house 
in the Rue Saint- Honored and was answered by a volley which 
stretched him and two of his servants dead on the spot. 

The Revolution had begun ! 

Marmont reached Paris about one o'clock, and proceeded 
to the headquarters of the Guard in the Place du Carrousel. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 261 

He found things in a deplorable state, from the military point 
of view. Polignac, as we have mentioned, had estimated the 
strength of the garrison at 18,000 men ; but several regiments 
had lately been withdrawn, and the troops in the capital did 
not exceed 12,000 men of all arms. No precautions whatever 
had been taken in view of an insurrection ; a number of officers 
were absent on furlough ; there was an insufficiency of ammu- 
nition and very little food or wine. Finally, no order had been 
issued confining the troops to barracks, and it was not until 
they assembled for the roll-call at four o'clock in the afternoon 
that the marshal was able to make his dispositions. 

Nothing of much importance, however, occurred during the 
remainder of that day. Two or three barricades were erected 
by the people and destroyed by the troops ; some of the 
soldiers were injured by stones, a few shots were fired, and a 
man was killed near the Rue Feydeau. But when darkness fell, 
the crowds dispersed, and before eleven o'clock the streets had 
resumed their normal appearance, and the troops were marched 
back to barracks. 

The night was peaceful, but very early in the morning of the 
28th the crowds began forming anew, in much greater numbers 
and in a far more excited condition than on the previous day. 
Then the cry had been " Vive la Charte ! A bas les minis tres I " ; 
now it was "Vive la liberie ! A bas les Bourbons /" By eight 
o'clock the inhabitants of the most populous quarters were in 
full revolt. The white flags at the mairies were torn down and 
trampled under foot ; the insurgents broke open the gunsmiths' 
shops and seized all the arms and ammunition that theycontained ; 
thousands of muskets belonging to the disbanded National 
Guards were distributed among them ; barricades sprang up 
everywhere. At nine o'clock, Marmont wrote to the King : " It 
is no longer a riot ; it is a revolution ! It is of urgent impor- 
tance that your Majesty should adopt means of pacification. 
The honour of the Crown may yet be saved. To-morrow 
it may be too late. I am taking measures to put down 
the revolt, but I impatiently await the orders of Your 
Majesty." 

Marmont had decided to mass his troops at the Tuileries 
and in the Champs-Elysees ; to occupy the Ecole Militaire, 
the Pantheon, the Palais de Justice, the interior Boulevards, 
the barracks, the Palais-Royal, the Louvre and the Hotel 



262 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

de Ville, and to keep open the principal thoroughfares, so 
that he might send reinforcements by them to any post where 
they happened to be needed. This plan, which would have 
been excellent with an army of sixty thousand men, was 
absolutely futile with the comparatively small force which he 
had at his disposal. 1 

The insurgents, moreover, were already assembled in force 
at nearly all the posts which he wished to occupy, and no 
sooner did the troops appear, than they were greeted by a 
murderous fusillade from behind the barricades, while missiles 
of every description were rained upon them from the houses. 
In the Place de Greve, where the tocsin of Notre-Dame had 
brought together swarms of people, the struggle was of the most 
obstinate character, and it was only after the Royal Guard had 
poured grapeshot into the serried masses opposed to it that it 
was able to force its way into the Hotel de Ville, leaving 
the ground over which it had passed strewn with the dead 
and dying. 

The occupants of the Chateau of Saint-Cloud heard the 
dismal clang of the tocsin and the boom of the guns. Madame 
de Gontaut tells us that, with the aid of a powerful telescope, 
she could see from her salon " the whole of the second story of 
the Rue de Rivoli, from which in every house men and women 
were throwing out all sorts of projectiles — pianos, commodes, 
every piece of furniture, in short, that they could lay their 
hands on — in the hope of crushing the troops assembled in the 
street below." She could see, too (for the sun was shining full 
upon them), the towers of Notre-Dame, and particularly the 
left one, where a furious struggle was in progress between the 
insurgents, who were endeavouring to hoist the tricolour, and 
the soldiers, who were trying to haul it down. One of the 
combatants was precipitated from the top of the tower, and 
she uttered a shriek of horror as she saw him fall. Every few 
minutes messengers were arriving from Paris, but, though 
Marmont did not attempt to conceal the gravity of the 
situation, Charles X. preferred to believe the absurdly opti- 
mistic reports of his favourite Polignac ; and Madame de 
Gontaut several times entreated him vainly to come up to her 
salon and see with his own eyes the desperate character of the 
resistance with which his troops were being called upon to 

1 Lamartine. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 263 

contend. He appeared to be quite unmoved by the sanguinary 
drama which was being enacted so near him, and to be confident 
that a few hours would see Paris at his feet. 

The Duchesse de Berry, on the other hand, was in despair. 
To her courageous soul it was torture to be compelled to remain 
inactive at Saint-Cloud, while Paris was an inferno of riot and 
bloodshed, and every hour the chances of the Monarchy were 
slipping away. " What a misfortune to be a woman ! " she 
cried. And, confident in the popularity of which she had had so 
many proofs, she entreated the King to allow her to go to Paris 
and show herself to the people, holding her son by the hand. 
But the only reply of Charles X. was to order her sternly to 
remain where she was and to compose herself. 

Late in the afternoon, the King received a despatch from 
Marmont, informing him that he had been approached by 
Laffitte, Casimir Perier, and other Opposition leaders, who had 
offered to do everything in their power to induce the insurgents 
to lay down their arms, if the Ordinances were repealed. " I 
think it urgent," concluded the marshal, " that your Majesty 
should profit without delay by the overtures that have been 
made." But the old monarch, though the progress of the 
revolt during the last few hours was beginning to weaken 
his hitherto imperturbable confidence, refused, with childish ob- 
stinacy, to hear of any concessions. 

Towards evening, the combat ceased from want of ammu- 
nition, and the King, no longer hearing the sound of firing, was 
persuaded that he was triumphing over the insurrection. In 
point of fact, the result of the day's fighting had been such as to 
afford every encouragement to the insurgents, since, though the 
troops had eventually succeeded in occupying the positions 
assigned to them, the losses they had sustained, scarcity of 
ammunition, and want of food — the populace had seized all the 
military bakeries, and the soldiers had eaten nothing since the 
morning — rendered it impossible to hold them. Accordingly, 
when night fell, Marmont ordered a retrograde movement, and 
the troops fell back to cover the Louvre, the Tuileries, the 
Palais-Royal, the Champs-Elysees, and the road to Saint-Cloud, 
leaving the rest of Paris in possession of the insurgents. 

A stranger who had visited the royal apartments at Saint- 
Cloud that evening would have found it difficult to believe that a 
revolution was in progress. Charles X. regarded it as a point 



264 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

of honour not to display any sign of uneasiness, and the 
courtiers, of course, followed his example. Everything went on 
as usual ; dinner was served at the customary hour ; afterwards 
the King took a walk upon the terrace, where his grandchildren 
played, and then sat down to his rubber of whist, which nothing 
was ever allowed to interrupt. "To see those four tranquil 
whist-players absorbed in their game scandalised me, I must 
admit," writes Madame de Gontaut ; "but I was wrong, for the 
King confessed to me subsequently that he only wished to 
appear tranquil, because it was thought best." 

Early on the following morning (June 29), the Due de 
Mortemart, one of those loyal but enlightened nobles who 
would have saved the Monarchy if Charles X. had been content 
to repose his confidence in them, sought an audience of the 
King. He told him plainly that the situation was every hour 
becoming more critical, and besought him to dismiss his 
Ministers and revoke the Ordinances before it should be too 
late. But the King, who was confident that Marmont would 
be able to hold his ground until. the troops from Luneville and 
Saint-Omer, which had been ordered to reinforce him, reached 
Paris, 1 refused to yield ; and the Marquis de S^monville, Grand 
Referendary of the Chamber of Peers, the Comte d'Argout 
and the Baron de Vitrolles, who arrived, shortly afterwards, from 
Paris on a similar mission, met with no better success. 

Meanwhile, hostilities had been resumed. Flushed with 
their success of the preceding day, the insurgents advanced in 
great force towards the Louvre and the Tuileries. The position 
which Marmont had taken up was a strong one, but the troops 
were worn out by hunger and fatigue, and disgusted with the 
fratricidal strife in which they were engaged, and, though the 
fidelity of the Guard was above suspicion, the Line regiments 
could not be relied upon. Moreover, the marshal, who tells us 
that he was expecting every moment to receive instructions 
from the King to promise the withdrawal of the Ordinances, 
hesitated, from motives of humanity or self-interest, to 
employ his artillery, a circumstance which greatly emboldened 
the populace. 

About noon, an incident occurred which decided the fate of 
the day and the dynasty. The 5th and 53rd regiments of the 

1 Owing to some blunder of Polignac, these orders did not arrive until three 
days after they should have done. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 265 

Line, which occupied the Place- Vendome, held a parley with the 
insurgents, and were about to permit them to pass on to 
the Tuileries. Informed of this defection, Marmont sent orders 
to the Comte de Salis, who with two Swiss battalions was 
posted at the Louvre, to despatch one of them to the Place- 
Vendome. Of these battalions, one had been firing all the 
morning from the colonnade and windows of the palace, the 
other had remained inactive in the courtyard. Salis decided to 
send the first to the Place- Vendome, and ordered the second 
to mount, in its turn, to the colonnade. But, by some mis- 
understanding, several minutes elapsed between the descent and 
departure of the first battalion and the appearance of the other ; 
and the insurgents, believing that the cessation of the firing 
indicated a retreat, suddenly rushed the gates, poured into the 
courtyard, drove the astonished Swiss headlong before them, 
and while some opened a withering fire from the windows of 
the palace, upon Marmont's reserve, posted on the Carrousel, 
the rest pressed on into the Tuileries. 

The marshal had now no alternative but to order a general 
retreat to the Champs-Elysees, and subsequently to Saint-Cloud, 
leaving the Tuileries in possession of the insurgents, who lost 
no time in mounting to the roof of the Pavilion de l'Horloge 
and hoisting the tricolour. It was at this moment that 
the Duchesse de Berry, who from a window on the second 
story at Saint-Cloud was turning a glass in the direction of 
Paris, perceived that the white flag had ceased to float over 
the Tuileries. " Ah ! mon Dieu / " she exclaimed, " I see the 
tricolour ! " 

It was only now, when the last of his soldiers had been 
expelled from the capital and his palace was in possession of his 
rebellious subjects, that Charles X. could be persuaded to resign 
himself to the idea of revoking the Ordinances and changing 
his Ministers. So far, however, was he from realising the true 
situation of affairs that, though he gave permission to 
Semonville, d'Argout, and Vitrolles to proceed to Paris and 
communicate his intentions to the provisional government 
which was established at the Hotel de Ville, he declined to give 
them any written authority, nor would he allow the Due 
de Mortemart, whom he had charged to form a new Cabinet, to 
accompany them. Never for a moment does he seem to have 
doubted that the mere informal announcement that he was 



266 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

prepared to grant that for which so much blood had been shed 
would be sufficient to appease the indignation of his people and 
restore tranquillity. 

In the chateau that evening all was again calm and serene. 
The King played whist, Polignac and Mortemart, the outgoing 
and incoming Prime Ministers, being, in turn, his partners ; 
while the Dauphin was absorbed in a game of chess. Outside, 
in the courtyard and in the gardens, where the faithful remnant 
of Marmont's army was stationed, the famished soldiers, many 
of them with bloodstained bandages round their heads or 
limbs, were clamouring for food and cursing the scandalous 
mismanagement which, while they were risking their lives in 
their Sovereign's service, denied them even a morsel of bread. 
The kind hearts of the Due de Bordeaux and Mademoiselle 
were touched by the distress of their brave defenders, and, 
when their own dinner was brought in, they declared their in- 
tention of giving it to some wounded soldiers in the courtyard. 
Madame de Gontaut let them have their way, and the little 
prince, seizing a huge leg of mutton, rushed downstairs with 
it, while his sister followed with whatever she could lay her 
hands on. "Take this, friends," they cried to the astonished 
and grateful warriors ; " it is our dinner ; take it all, and the 
dishes too ! " x 

About an hour after midnight, d'Argout and Vitrolles 
returned from Paris. The King had long ago retired to rest, 
but they discovered Mortemart asleep on a sofa. Much aston- 
ished to find him still at Saint-Cloud, they awoke him, told 
him that their mission had completely failed, and begged him 
to start without a moment's delay for Paris and make a last 
effort to save the Monarchy. The duke replied that he would 
have left long ago, but that, though he had been waiting all the 
evening for the King to sign the new Ordinances, which revoked 
those of the 25th, nominated him President of the Council and 
Minister for Foreign Affairs, and re-established the National 
Guard, he had not yet done so. a The two nobles implored him 
to awaken the monarch, and, after the obstacles which etiquette 
interposed had been overcome, they were admitted to the royal 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 

2 According to Lamartine, the King's reluctance to sign the new Ordinances 
arose from the belief that, if he delayed, overtures would be made to him by the 
Opposition leaders, which would not only save his dignity, but enable him to limit 
his concessions. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 267 

bedchamber, and eventually contrived to obtain the King's 
signature. 

At six o'clock in the morning of the 30th, Mortemart started 
for Paris ; but he had great difficulty in gaining admission 
to the city, and, in order to avoid recognition, was compelled 
to traverse the greater part of the way on foot. As he 
was not yet fully recovered from a severe illness, he arrived 
in so exhausted a condition that he was unable personally 
to interview the Opposition leaders, and was obliged to send 
the new Ordinances to the Hotel de Ville. They came too 
late. What would have been accepted with gratitude two days 
before, now excited nothing but derision. "The throne of 
Charles X. " — to borrow the expression of Schonen — " had 
melted into blood," and all eyes were turning to the Due 
d'Orleans, who had been prudently keeping out of the way 
during the last few days, but who that same night arrived in 
Paris, to assume the post of Lieutenant-Governor of the King- 
dom, while awaiting the Crown. 



CHAPTER XXII 

The Duchesse de Berry, alarmed for the safety of her children, begs the Dauphin 
to persuade Charles X. to leave Saint-Cloud — Departure of the Court at daybreak 
on July 31 — Arrival at the Grand-Trianon — Astonishment of the King at the 
costume assumed by Madame — The Court continues its retreat to Rambouillet — A 
frugal supper — The Dauphine joins her relatives — Charles X. and the Due d'Orleans 
— Abdication of the King in favour of the Due de Bordeaux — Efforts of the Duchesse 
de Berry to induce Charles X. to allow her to go to Paris — " Vive Henri V.!" — 
Duplicity of the Due d'Orleans — A game of bluff — Charles X. decides to leave 
France — Departure of the Royal Family from Rambouillet — Arrival at the Chateau 
of Maintenon — The King takes leave of the troops — The journey to the coast — 
Madame urges the King not to abandon the struggle — The Royal Family at Valognes 
— Farewell to the Gardes du corps — Arrival at Cherbourg — The Royal Family sail 
for England. 



A 



LL day long the occupants of Saint-Cloud anxiously- 
awaited the result of Mortemart's negotiations, but no 
message from the duke reached the chateau — his 
agents had, in fact, been stopped by the insurgents — and they 
were in complete uncertainty as to what was happening in 
Paris. When evening came, the King, becoming seriously 
uneasy, ordered the Comte de la Bourdonnaye, one of the 
gentlemen of the Chamber, to go in search of Mortemart, and 
ascertain how he had fared ; and, while awaiting his return, he 
went to bed. 

Towards midnight, a rumour spread that the insurgents, 
who were assembled in force between Auteuil and Boulogne, 
intended to take advantage of the darkness to surprise the 
chateau. The report would appear to have been without foun- 
dation, but some of the courtiers persuaded the Duchesse de 
Berry that her children were in danger, and, though the 
courageous princess had no fears for herself, she was greatly 
alarmed on their account. She therefore went to the Dauphin, 
and implored him to persuade the King to leave Saint-Cloud. 

The Dauphin was at first reluctant to disturb his father, 
but at length he yielded to her entreaties, and Charles X., on 
learning the news, reluctantly consented to give the order for 

268 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 269 

departure. The Gardes du corps, who were sleeping near their 
horses, with the bridles over their arms, mounted in silence, and 
were drawn up in line of battle opposite the chateau, and, as 
the day was beginning to break, the carriages containing the 
King and the Royal Family started for Versailles. Marmont 
rode beside the King's carriage ; the Dauphin, who had super- 
seded the marshal in command of the troops, remained behind 
at Saint-Cloud to cover the retreat. 

After going a little way, Charles X. left his carriage and 
mounted a horse. " I saw a hand placed on the door of the 
carriage on my side," writes Madame de Gontaut, who was in 
charge of Mademoiselle ; " I leaned forward and met the eyes of 
the King, sad, but not dejected. He did not speak, and in 
silence continued to escort the carriages of his grandchildren — 
all the treasure that was left to him on earth. I had not 
breathed a sigh on leaving Saint-Cloud, the Court and its 
grandeurs, but I wept when I looked on the sad, resigned 
countenance of the King." 

On the outskirts of Versailles, the Marquis de Verac, 
governor of the town, presented himself to warn the King that 
the Place d'Armes was crowded with National Guards, who had 
hoisted the tricolour and were making bellicose speeches. 
Charles X. then gave orders to turn in the direction of the 
Grand-Trianon, where the cortege arrived at six o'clock. The 
Royal Family entered the great marble salon, where the King 
was astonished to perceive the costume which had been adopted 
by the Duchesse de Berry. The princess was dressed in a 
"green redingote with a velvet collar, wide pantaloons, and a 
man's hat," * and in a belt round her waist were two pistols. 
" Why this singular costume, my daughter ? " said he, tapping 
her on the shoulder, " and for what purpose are these weapons ? " 
" To defend my children, Sire," was the reply, " in case any one 
should attack them." His Majesty smiled and shook his head, 
observing : " Take my advice, my child, and abandon this 
toilette, which would become one of Walter Scott's heroines." 
But it was not until they reached Saint-L6 that the princess 
was able to do so, as the departure from Saint-Cloud had been 
so hurried that she had nothing else to wear. 

The old monarch would fain have lingered a little amid the 
scenes which recalled so many souvenirs of his youth ; but, 

1 Souvenirs du Ueutena7it-general vicomie de Reiset. 



270 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

shortly after one o'clock, the Dauphin arrived, and urged his 
father strongly to gain Rambouillet without further delay. The 
Revolution was spreading rapidly in the country around Paris, 
and he had had a sharp brush with the insurgents at the bridge 
of Sevres, in which one of his officers, the Due d'Esclignac, had 
been severely wounded. 

An hour later, the royal cortege resumed its march. As it 
was passing Saint-Cyr, the cadets of the Military School, who 
had come, on the 28th, to Saint-Cloud with their field-guns to 
assist in protecting the Royal Family, and had only returned 
that morning, rushed out to cheer the King. They were eager 
to join his escort, but this Charles X., though he thanked the 
brave lads warmly for their devotion to his cause, would not 
permit. 

Rambouillet was reached at ten o'clock at night. It was 
only on the previous Monday — the day on which the Ordinances 
had appeared — that Charles X. had visited the old chiteau of 
Francois L, to enjoy a day's hunting. How little could he have 
foreseen then that ere a week had passed he would return there 
a fugitive recoiling before a revolution ! 

The unfortunate Sovereign had not been expected, and no 
preparations had been made for his reception. The chateau 
was closed, and neither lights, linen, nor food were to be found 
there ; while the troops which had preceded the Royal Family 
had eaten up everything in the town. Madame de Gontaut 
hunted from cellar to attic to find something for poor Made- 
moiselle, who was faint with hunger, but the only result of her 
search was a piece of stale bread, which the little princess 
generously insisted on sharing with her gouvernante. Next 
day, matters were much better; the King authorised the 
officers of the Gardes du corps to kill the game in the sur- 
rounding coverts, and there was a mighty slaughter. Never- 
theless, the difficulty of feeding the troops was still very great, 
while there was no money to pay them, and, though the greater 
part still remained faithful, numbers deserted. 

In the course of the morning, the Duchesse d'Angouleme 
joined her relatives, to the great relief of Charles X., who, 
viewing the Revolution through the souvenirs of 1793, had been 
very uneasy about the fate of his niece. The Dauphine had 
left Vichy on July 25 — the day on which the Ordinances had 
been signed — but she only learned of them when she reached 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 271 

Magon, on the afternoon of the 27th. During the first part of 
her journey, she was received with shouts of joy, white flags, 
and triumphal arches ; during the last stages, force had to be 
employed to protect her from the insults of the populace, and 
she reached Rambouillet in the carriage of Comte Melchior de 
Polignac, governor of the Chateau of Fontainebleau, who passed 
her off as one of his relatives. 

The King had not yet abandoned all hope of a change of 
fortune. General de Girardin, who came that day from Paris, 
informed them of the Due d'Orleans's arrival in the capital and 
of his acceptance of the post of Lieutenant-General of the 
Kingdom. According to Marmont, he added that the duke 
had been offered the Crown and had refused it, declaring that he 
would never consent to be a usurper. However that may be, 
Charles X. could not bring himself to believe that a prince 
whom he had overwhelmed with benefits was capable of betray- 
ing him, and, with the idea of giving a legal appearance to what 
was happening, he himself invested the duke with the powers 
of Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, and approved the re- 
assembling of the Chambers on August 3, the date fixed before 
the issue of the fatal Ordinances. 

This communication reached the Due d'Orleans late that 
night, at the moment when he was engaged with his most 
intimate counsellor, Dupin, in drafting the speech which he 
was to deliver at the opening of the Chambers. Dupin drew up 
a reply, " cold and cruel as the adverse decree of Fate," x in which 
the duke merely acknowledged his Majesty's letter, and informed 
him that he was already Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, 
by choice of the provisional government. But it is generally 
believed that Louis-Philippe, unknown to his adviser, afterwards 
substituted for this epistle one which contained assurances of 
fidelity and devotion, and that these assurances determined 
Charles X., overwhelmed by his misfortunes, to abdicate, hoping, 
by this act of abnegation, to save the throne for his grandson. 

On the morning of August 2, when Madame de Gontaut 
took the children to the King's room, Charles X. held out his 
arms to the Due de Bordeaux, and pressed him for a moment to 
his heart. Then, setting him down, he took up a paper which 
he had apparently just finished writing, and said : " This is my 
abdication, but I am not quite satisfied with the manner in 

1 Lamartine. 



272 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

which it is expressed." And he handed the lady a letter 
addressed to the Due d'Orleans, in which he informed that 
prince that he had resolved to abdicate the throne in favour of 
his grandson, and that the Dauphin also renounced his rights 
in favour of his nephew ; and directed him to proclaim the Due 
de Bordeaux King, under the title of Henri V., and take all the 
necessary measures to regulate the forms of government during 
the minority of the new Sovereign. 

While Madame de Gontaut was reading the abdication, the 
Dauphine entered. The King presented it to her ; she read it, 
and expressed her entire approval. Her husband followed, 
and, merely glancing at the document, with the purport of which 
he was, of course, already acquainted, took up a pen and signed 
it. All three, as well as Madame de Gontaut, were in tears, 
and Mademoiselle, observing this, said, in an undertone, to the 
Due de Bordeaux: "Some misfortune is going to happen to 
us, brother, for they all cry when they look at us. Let us go 
and pray to the good God." And she drew him out on to the 
balcony, where they knelt down. " I watched them," writes 
Madame de Gontaut ; " never was there a more touching scene ! 
I shall never forget it." 

The abdication signed, the King said to the gouvernante : 
" Take the children away ; I cannot bear to see them so sad. 
Go and try and amuse them." Madame de Gontaut took the 
children to their own apartments, where they soon recovered 
their spirits, and were playing at horses with a team of chairs, 
when the Baron de Damas entered, bowed low to the Due de 
Bordeaux, and said : " Sire ! " Then, after a pause, he con- 
tinued : " Sire, I am commissioned to inform you that the King, 
your august grandfather, having failed to give happiness to 
France, in spite of his heartfelt desire to do so, has just abdicated, 
and it is you, Monseigneur, who are to be King, under the name 
of Henri V. The little prince got down from the box, and, 
standing in front of the baron, said : " What ! Bon-papa, who 
is so good, could not make France happy ! And they want to 
make me King ! " Then, shrugging his shoulders, he added : 
"Why, Monsieur le Baron, what you are telling me is im- 
possible ! " With which he gathered up his whip and reins, and 
said : "' Come, sister, let us go on with our game." 

Shortly afterwards, the King sent for Madame de Gontaut, 
and inquired how the Due de Bordeaux had received the news 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 273 

of his royalty. When he heard what the boy had said, he 
could not help laughing. 

So little suspicion had Charles X. of the real designs of 
Louis-Philippe, that he requested Madame de Gontaut, who was 
on very affectionate terms with the Duchesse d'Orleans, to 
write to that princess, and tell her that " they were entrusting 
to her care all that they held most dear in the world." " I have 
just written to her," he added, "but I know that she is attached 
to you, and a letter from you will not be taken amiss." 

Although the prospect of her son being King of France 
naturally appealed to the maternal pride of the Duchesse de 
Berry, she was in despair at the thought that he was to be 
snatched from her. She was convinced that it was her right to 
remain by his side, and that the regency ought to belong to her. 
Had not Blanche of Castile, Catherine de' Medici, Marie de' 
Medici, and Anne of Austria, exercised it during the minority 
of their sons, she argued, ignoring the fact that each of these 
princesses had been Queen of France ? Why, then, should she 
be passed over — she who was a Bourbon by birth as well as 
by marriage ? Recollecting, too, the immense popularity which 
she had enjoyed, and the enthusiastic and almost idolatrous 
protestations of devotion which had been addressed to her at 
the time of her marriage, at the birth of the Due de Bordeaux, 
and during her visits to the provinces, she believed that any 
chance that might exist of the nation refusing to accept her son 
as King, and herself as Regent, would be removed if she were to 
hasten to Paris and present the little prince in person to the 
Chambers, the people, and the Army. 

In this persuasion, she despatched one of the gentlemen of 
her Household to the sous-prtfet of Rambouillet, with an order 
to procure post-horses, and entreated Charles X.'s permission to 
set out with her son for Paris. But the King was inflexible in 
his refusal to allow his grandson to incur such a risk. The 
princess then announced her intention of going alone, but once 
more the King interposed his authority ; and, though she 
returned again and again to the charge, and a post-chaise with 
six horses attached to it waited in the courtyard of the chateau 
the whole afternoon, nothing would move him, and, weeping 
bitterly, she was finally obliged to countermand the orders she 
had already given for her departure. 

Several biographers of the Duchesse de Berry, including 



274 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Netteraent and the Vicomte de Reiset, seem to be of opinion 
that, if the princess had been permitted to execute her project, 
she might have succeeded in saving the throne for the Due de 
Bordeaux. Certainly, the appearance of Madame in Paris to 
plead the cause of her son, particularly if she had brought the 
little prince with her, could scarcely have failed to produce a 
more or less marked revulsion of feeling, which would have 
placed the Due d'Orleans and his confederates in a very em- 
barrassing position. But we are inclined to think that she would 
never have been allowed to show herself to the people, much less 
to appear before the Chambers ; and that the moment she was 
recognised, she would have been arrested, and either held as a 
hostage or sent back under escort to Rambouillet. 

After dinner, Charles X., who had substituted ordinary 
evening-dress for the splendid uniform decorated with Orders 
which it had been his invariable custom to wear, visited the 
bivouac of the Gardes du corps, accompanied by all the Royal 
Family. He announced to them his abdication in favour of his 
grandson, whom he presented to them as their King, and asked 
for him the same fidelity which they had shown for himself. 
When he had finished speaking, there was a great rattle of steel ; 
every sword leaped from its scabbard, and was raised aloft ; and 
officers and men rent the air with shouts of " Vive Henri V. ! " 
The Dauphin, the Dauphine, and the Duchesse de Berry also 
addressed the troops, and the last-named " seemed to electrify 
them, for she spoke of glory and hope." * 

Meanwhile, the act of abdication had been printed, and, later 
in the evening, Marmont, who had resumed command of the 
troops, read it to each regiment in turn. At night, the counter- 
sign was given by the Baron de Damas in the name of Henri V. 

Between three and four o'clock that afternoon, General de 
Foissac-Latour, who had been selected by Charles X. to deliver 
the act of abdication to the Due d'Orleans, had started for 
Paris. On reaching the Palais-Royal, he was told that the 
duke was at Neuilly and ill, and eventually had to hand the 
abdication, together with Madame de Gontaut's letter, to 
the duchess. That lady read the letter addressed to her and 
said, with tears in her eyes : " Tell the Royal Family that my 
husband is an honest man, and repeat it to the Duchesse de 
Gontaut." 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, MSmoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 275 

For an "honest man," Louis-Philippe, who, needless to say, 
was in the Palais-Royal all the while, was certainly acting in 
a very singular way. On the morning of August 2, he had 
announced that he had received a letter from Charles X., the 
previous night, in which the King informed him that he was on 
the point of leaving France, and asked for a convoy to his place 
of embarkation. Then he despatched to Rambouillet five 
commissioners, who arrived there between nine and ten o'clock 
that evening, explained their mission to Marmont, and asked 
to be presented to the King. His Majesty declined to receive 
them, and answered that he had not demanded a convoy and 
needed none, and that, surrounded by a faithful army, he 
intended to remain where he was and await the result of the 
communication he had ordered the Due d'Orleans to make to 
the Chambers. 

The commissioners, not a little astonished at the "strange 
blunder " which the Lieutenant-General had committed, returned 
immediately to Paris and reported the result of their journey to 
Louis-Philippe. That personage was becoming seriously uneasy 
at the presence of the royal army so near the capital, for, small 
as was its numbers at present, it might any day be reinforced, 
when it might advance upon Paris, or march to the Loire, and 
become the nucleus of another Vendeen rising. "Charles X. 
must go ! " he said to the commissioners ; " he must go im- 
mediately ! and, in order to compel him, he must be frightened ! " 

He, accordingly, caused a report to be set on foot that 
Charles X. was about to march on Paris, and sent orders to 
Lafayette, who commanded the National Guard, to have the 
call to arms beaten in every quarter of the city. The fighting 
impulse was still in full force ; the people flew to arms, and in 
three or four hours an army, the strength of which is variously 
estimated at from 10,000 to 15,000 men, had assembled in the 
Champs-Elysees. 

It was a motley array, clad in every variety of costume and 
armed with every description of weapon ; in fact, one might 
have taken it for a masquerade. But it was sufficient for the 
purpose for which it was intended. There was, indeed, no 
intention of allowing it to run the risk of a speedy and 
disastrous defeat, by encountering regular troops on open 
ground. The orders to General Pajol, who was in command, 
were to halt at some distance from Rambouillet ; while three 



276 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

of the commissioners, Marechal Maison, Baron Schonen, and 
Odilon-Barrot, were to proceed to the chateau, and, by grossly- 
exaggerating the strength of the Parisian rabble, endeavour 
to persuade Charles X. that he had no alternative between de- 
parture from France and a sanguinary conflict, which must 
inevitably be the signal for a general civil war. 

This impudent bluff was completely successful. While the 
Due d'Orleans was reading to the assembled Chambers the 
letter in which Charles X. abdicated his throne and the Dauphin 
renounced his right of succession, omitting all mention of the 
little prince in whose favour these renunciations had been 
made, Pajol's disorderly mob, having requisitioned every private 
carriage and public conveyance upon which it could lay its 
hands, started for Rambouillet. As dusk was falling, the 
Parisians reached Coignieres, about three leagues from Ram- 
bouillet. Here they halted and proceeded to bivouac, an 
advance-guard being sent forward to the village of Trappes, 
for the purpose of frustrating any attempt on the part of the 
Royalists to ascertain the strength of the expeditionary force. 
The commissioners, having been accorded a safe-conduct by 
Marmont, repaired to the chateau, and were received by 
Charles X. With a skilful assumption of emotion, they in- 
formed the King that they had come in all haste to implore 
him to depart immediately and spare France the horrors of 
further bloodshed, as a great force of armed citizens was 
marching upon Rambouillet, and, if he persisted in remaining, 
a terrible conflict was inevitable ; and Marechal Maison, in 
answer to a question from his Majesty as to the numbers of 
the approaching force, is said to have assured him, on his word 
of honour as a soldier, that it must be from sixty to eighty 
thousand strong. 

The King, who could not believe that a marshal of France 
who had received the baton from his own hand, was capable of 
deceiving him, thereupon informed the commissioners that he 
would let them know his decision in a quarter of an hour, and 
retired to consult his generals. Some were in favour of giving 
battle to the insurgents ; but Marmont, who had all along been 
but half-hearted in the royal cause, and was unwilling to 
compromise himself further with the Revolution, declared 
himself very dubious as to the result of an engagement, and 
advised an immediate departure. His advice coincided with 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 277 

the King's own inclinations, for he shrank from exposing the 
lives of his faithful soldiers in what he imagined would be an 
unequal combat ; and he believed that a renewal of the blood- 
shed of the previous week would ruin his grandson's prospects 
of ever securing the throne. Accordingly, he returned to the 
commissioners and informed them that he was prepared to 
accede to their wishes, and Odilon-Barrot joyfully wrote to Pajol : 
"General, you may arrest your movement ; we have just deter- 
mined the King to depart, by. dint of frightening him. His 
forces were considerable . . . Marechal Maison estimates that 
there were not less than ten thousand altogether." x 

Leaving the commissioners, Charles X. returned to the 
grand salon, and approached the Due de Noailles. 2 " My dear 
duke," said he, "in order to avoid great misfortunes, I have 
decided to go away. Will you receive us at Maintenon ? " 
The duke bowed respectfully, and, summoning a carriage, 
hastened off to prepare for the King's reception. 

At nine o'clock that evening, the Court quitted Rambouillet, 
accompanied by the commissioners. The night was very dark, 
and the road encumbered by fugitives and deserters, and it 
was not until two o'clock on the morning of August 4 that 
Charles X., who was on horseback, entered the courtyard of the 
Chateau of Maintenon. The chateau was brilliantly lighted 
as though for a fete, and the Due and Duchesse de Noailles 
awaited their royal guests at the foot of the steps. The King, 
who looked pale and worn, spoke for a few moments with his 
hosts, and, aware that the duchess was shortly expecting her 
confinement, courteously begged her not to exert herself further 
on his account. Then he was conducted to the apartments 
formerly occupied by Louis XIV., which had been prepared for 
his reception, while the Dauphin was lodged in those of Madame 
de Maintenon. The Duchesse de Berry and her children were 
accommodated on the rez-de-chauss£e. 

In the morning, the King rose early, and, to the despair of 
those who had cherished the hope that he would retire to the 

1 In point of fact, they numbered between eight and nine thousand, including 
seven batteries of horse-artillery ; and Pajol afterwards admitted that his Parisians 
would "have scattered like frightened sparrows" at the first attack. 

2 Paul, Due de Noailles (1802-1885). He was the author of an admirable and 
exhaustive history of Madame de Maintenon, and, in 1849, was elected a member of 
the Academie-Francaise, in succession to Chateaubriand. He married, in 1823, 
Alice de Rochechouart-Mortemart, a sister of the Due de M01 temart. 



278 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Loire and make an attempt at government in the name of 
Henri V., it was announced that he had definitely decided to 
quit the shores of France, and that Cherbourg was his destina- 
tion. Only the Gardes du corps and the Gendarmerie cCelite 
were to accompany him ; the Foot Guard regiments and the 
Hundred Swiss were to march to Chartres or Chalons, to be 
there disbanded. 

A few minutes before the hour fixed for his departure, 
Charles X., accompanied by the Royal Family, took leave of 
the troops who were to be left behind. As he thanked them 
for the fidelity which they had shown him, his voice trembled 
with emotion, while the Dauphine and the Duchesse de Berry 
could not restrain their tears. At the conclusion of his speech, 
the colonels advanced and presented the colours to the King, 
but the Dragoons of the Guard retained theirs, which they 
divided into tiny pieces and shared piously between them, as a 
souvenir of the prince whom they had served with such touching 
devotion. 1 

The royal cortege took the road to Dreux, the carriage of 
the commissioners preceding those of the Royal Family. The 
peasants along the route manifested no hostility, but it was 
different at Dreux, where all the public buildings had hoisted 
the tricolour, and the inhabitants were in a very excited state ; 
and the intervention of the commissioners was necessary to 
secure the Royal Family admission to the town. 

The night of August 4-5 was passed at Dreux, and very 
early on the following morning the cortege resumed its march. 
Notwithstanding the dismissal of the troops and the departure 
of a great many of the courtiers, it was still of immense length, 
for to the long file of carriages which contained the princes 
and princesses, their Household, and their servants, was joined 
a prodigious number of waggons and carts loaded with plate, 
furniture, and luggage. The procession presented a singular 
mixture of pomp and shabbiness ; and behind the magnificent 
royal coach were fastened several bundles of hay, to serve as 
fodder for the eight splendid horses which drew it. 

The journey was made by short stages, much to the disgust 
of Louis-Philippe, who could not feel at ease so long as 
Charles X. was on French territory ; and Guizot, who was now 
Minister of the Interior, wrote to the commissioners complaining 

1 Not a single man of this regiment had deserted. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 279 

bitterly of their slow progress. But the old monarch, either 
from some lingering hope that his grandson might yet be 
accepted in his stead, or from reluctance to leave the realm 
which he had lost and the desire to retire from it with all the 
majesty of a king, refused to accelerate his departure. 

It was a melancholy and trying journey. The heat during 
the first few days was overpowering, and was rendered the more 
intolerable by the clouds of dust raised by the horses' feet. 
The accommodation and food at the inns at which they stopped 
were sometimes very indifferent, and, though the King and the 
Royal Family were fairly comfortably lodged, the members of 
their respective suites had sometimes to content themselves 
with garrets and mattresses or beds of straw. The tricolour 
flag seemed to be everywhere, and the attitude of the people, 
though they abstained from any hostile manifestations, and, 
indeed, occasionally raised their hats as the King passed, indi- 
cated very plainly that they endorsed the verdict of the capital. 

The faithful General de Reiset, who, on learning of the 
Revolution, had hastened from Artois to Paris, and thence to 
Normandy, to offer his services to his Sovereign, came up with 
the cortege on August 10, at a little country-inn a few miles 
from Falaise, where the Royal Family had stopped to breakfast. 
In his Souvenirs, recently published by his grandson, he has left 
us an interesting account of his meeting with Charles X., whom 
he had last seen at Saint-Cloud, a day or two before the Ordi- 
nances were signed, surrounded by all the pomp of majesty. 
"I was admitted to a room on the ground-floor," he writes. 
" The King was there, seated on a straw chair, before a clumsy 
table, talking familiarly with several persons. The princes were 
grouped about him, having for seats only simple benches. It 
was in this room that his Majesty had just taken his repast 
with his family. I had difficulty in controlling my emotion, 
and, in kissing his Majesty's hand, I was only able to stammer 
a few words, to tell him that I had come to place myself at his 
orders. 'Ah! my poor Reiset,' said the King to me, sadly, 
1 who could have supposed, when I saw you at Saint-Cloud, a 
fortnight ago, that it would be in a place like this that we should 
meet again ! ' And, as I endeavoured to reply that all hope 
was not yet lost, and that many others were ready like myself 
to shed their blood for the cause of Monarchy, the King 
rejoined sadly, ' Oh ! I know, I know, you are among the good, 



280 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

and even among the best, my dear Reiset, but what can you do 
now ? You see in what position we are ; I have abdicated ; I 
am no longer anything, nor is the Dauphin.' " 

The Court slept that night at Cond£-sur-Noireau. This 
little town passed as very hostile to the royal cause, and the 
commissioners, who dreaded that a collision might occur between 
the escort and the inhabitants, had entreated the King to change 
his route and pass through Caen, where tranquillity was assured. 
His Majesty, however, declined, and events justified his refusal ; 
for, though the National Guards abstained from rendering any 
military honour, there was no attempt at a hostile demonstra- 
tion. 1 The King was lodged in one of the best houses in the 
town, which the owner, who was a Protestant, had placed at his 
disposal. This gentleman, fearing that he might not be agree- 
able to his Majesty on this account, said to him : " Sire, it is a 
great honour that you condescend to do me ; but I ought not 
to leave you in ignorance that I belong to the Reformed re- 
ligion." "Do not excuse yourself, Monsieur," answered the 
King, smiling ; " it was the religion of Henri IV." 

On the nth, Charles X. slept at Vire, at the Chateau of 
Cotin, where he was received with the greatest respect by the 
owner, M. Roger ; but the tricolour waved above all the public 
buildings of the towns and created a painful impression. The 
following day, on arriving at the frontier of the Department of 
La Manche, the King was met, as much to his surprise as to 
his gratification, by the prefect, the Comte d'Estourmel, who 
begged permission to accompany his Majesty to Cherbourg, 
and offered him the hospitality of his official residence at 
Saint-L6. It was here that, thanks to the kindness of Madame 
d'Estourmel, the Duchesse de Berry was at length able to 
replace the masculine costume in which she had travelled from 
Saint-Cloud by more suitable habiliments, and to obtain a 
change of underlinen. 

Carentan was to have been the next stage, but a ridiculous 
report had been circulated among the inhabitants that Charles X. 
was advancing with a numerous army to Cherbourg, in order 
to seize that port and deliver it to Great Britain ; and, though 

1 There was, however, great animosity against Marmont, who was advised to 
remove some of his decorations, so as to escape recognition. It was reported that he 
had been obliged to change his lodging in the middle of the night, as an attack upon 
him had been planned. 




LOUIS-PHILIPPE I, KING OF THE FRENCH 

FROM THE PAINTING BY WINTERHAI.TER IN THE MUSEE DE VERSAILLES 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 281 

the commissioners, who had hastened on in advance of the 
royal cortige, succeeded in reassuring them, it was deemed 
advisable to push on to Valognes. 

In passing through Carentan, Charles X. was informed that 
the Due d'Orleans had consummated his usurpation and assumed 
the title of King of the French. He refused to credit it and 
spoke of it simply as a rumour ; but the news was, of course, 
only too true. 

Between Carentan and Valognes, the country was strongly 
Royalist in its sympathies, and the peasants, who had gathered 
in numbers along the road, greeted the Royal Family with 
cries of " Vive le Roi ! Vivent les Bourbons ! " and pressed 
around the carriage of the little Due de Bordeaux to kiss his 
hand. The Duchesse de Berry was greatly moved, and com- 
plained bitterly that Charles X. should have abandoned the 
struggle when he possessed such faithful subjects. " Let us 
stay here," she cried ; " let us cling fast to a tree, to a post, but, 
for God's sake, let us go no further ! " However, it was now too 
late for repentance, and that evening they reached Valognes, 
the last stage from Cherbourg, in the midst of pouring rain, 
which did not tend to raise their spirits. 

The Royal Family was lodged at the house of a M. du 
Mesnildot, where the Empress Marie Louise had stayed in 
August 18 1 3, when she was on her way to Cherbourg to open 
the great dock. The unfortunate troops of the escort had to 
bivouac in the open, for scarcely any shelter was to be obtained 
in this little town. No complaints, however, were heard from 
them, and the endurance and fidelity of the Gardes du corps, 
little accustomed as they were to such privations, were beyond 
all praise. " Never," writes Marmont, " had a corps displayed 
a more admirable spirit. Order, respect, and devotion reigned 
to the very end." * 

It was not until reaching Valognes that the question of 
Charles X.'s destination, after leaving France, was definitely 
settled. He had successively proposed to land at Ostend, 
Amsterdam, and Hamburg ; but the French Government, which 
was determined to drive the dethroned Sovereign not only from 
France, but from the Continent, prohibited all three. He, 
therefore, decided to disembark at Portsmouth, and wrote to 
William IV. to ask for a temporary asylum in his dominions. 

1 Memoires. 



282 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Another difficulty had arisen in regard to the vessels which 
were to transport the exiles across the Channel, since the King 
absolutely refused to embark in any ship which flew the tri- 
colour flag. It was finally surmounted by the Government 
chartering two American vessels lying at Le Havre, the Great 
Britain and the Claude Carroll. 

The following day, August 14 — the Festival of the Assump- 
tion — the Court remained at Valognes, and Charles X. sought 
consolation for his misfortunes in religious exercises. The 
other members of the Royal Family followed his example, the 
Dauphine and Madame communicating at six o'clock in the 
church of Valognes. 

At midday, a touching ceremony took place. Before parting 
from his brave and devoted Gardes du corps, who would escort 
him on the morrow for the last time, the old King desired to 
take leave of them publicly. All the officers and the twenty- 
five oldest troopers of each company marched, in full-dress 
uniform, to the royal lodging, and the captains, in turn, advanced 
and laid their standards at the feet of the King, who was sur- 
rounded by all the Royal Family. His Majesty took the 
standards and embraced the officers who carried them, and, in 
a voice broken by emotion, said : " I shall never forget, gentle- 
men, the proofs of attachment which you have given me. I 
thank you for your devotion and your fidelity. I take back 
these standards, which are without stain, with the hope that 
one day my grandson will restore them to you." The other 
members of the Royal Family, including the Due de Bordeaux 
and Mademoiselle, also spoke a word of farewell ; and then, as 
Charles X., anxious to put an end to so painfnl a scene, was 
turning away, followed by his relatives, officers and men rushed 
forward and crowded round them to kiss their hands. In the 
evening each garde du corps received a copy of the order of 
the day, published after this touching ceremony, which stated 
that his Majesty had ordered the muster-rolls of each company 
to be sent to him, so that the Due de Bordeaux might preserve 
the recollection of their devotion. 

At nine o'clock the following morning, after taking a simi- 
larly affecting farewell of the Gendarmerie d'elite, the Royal 
Family set out on the last stage of its journey. Both Charles X. 
and the Dauphin had laid aside their uniforms and Orders for 
civilian dress, a change which announced that the moment of 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 283 

their departure into exile was close at hand. At one o'clock, 
the cortege, escorted by the Gardes du corps, who still wore 
their white cockades, entered Cherbourg, where almost every 
house displayed the tricolour, in honour of the accession of 
Louis-Philippe, and proceeded, without stopping, through the 
faubourgs to gain the military port. The streets were crowded, 
but beyond a few cries of " A bas la cocarde blanche ! Vive la 
liberie 7" there was nothing in the nature of a hostile demon- 
stration. The National Guards did not render any military 
honour, but the officers of the 64th Regiment, detachments of 
which were stationed at intervals along the route, respectfully 
lowered their swords. 

The port was reached shortly before two o'clock. The 
Gardes du corps drew up in line facing the sea ; the carriages 
advanced to a gangway covered with blue cloth, which led to 
the Great Britain, the vessel upon which the Royal Family 
was to embark, and then stopped. The step of the King's 
carriage was let down, and Charles X. alighted ; the Dauphin 
followed, holding the Due de Bordeaux by the hand ; then 
came Mademoiselle, holding the hand of Madame de Gontaut ; 
the Dauphine, leaning on the arm of M. de la Rochejaquelein, 
and the Duchesse de Berry, escorted by another Vendeen noble, 
the Baron de Charette, " whose name was a prognostic." l The 
Dauphine was dressed entirely in black, and her eyes were red 
with weeping ; Madame had resumed the green redingote and 
masculine hat which she had worn during the first part of the 
journey, and carried a little pet dog under her arm. 

The commissioners, the maritime prefect, and Captain Du- 
mont-d'Urville, who was to command the Great Britain, were 
awaiting them. The last-named was not in uniform, as he 
desired to spare the King the sight of the tricolour cockade. 
The prefect presented him to Charles X., and he inquired to 
what port his Majesty desired to proceed. The King replied 
that he had decided to go to Portsmouth, and there await 
the reply to the letter which he had written to the King of 
England. In case any difficulty arose, he proposed to go to 
Palermo. He then had some conversation with the commis- 
sioners in regard to his private affairs, and gave them a few 
lines in his own hand testifying to the courtesy and considera- 
tion with which they had discharged their delicate mission. 

1 Lamartine. 



284 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

The moment had now come for Charles X. to take leave of 
the faithful adherents — some sixty in all — who had followed 
him to Cherbourg, but who were not to accompany him into 
exile. It was a pathetic scene, as one by one they came 
forward to kiss the hand of the Sovereign who, with all his 
faults, had been one of the best and kindest of masters. The 
old King bore the ordeal bravely, as did the Dauphin and 
Dauphine, but the Duchesse de Berry gave free vent to her 
grief and sobbed bitterly. At length, it was over, and im- 
mediately the last of the courtiers of misfortune had stepped 
on shore, the gangway was raised, the Gardes du corps pre- 
sented arms for the last time, and the Great Britain and the 
Charles Carroll were towed out into the roadstead, and were 
soon standing out to sea under a favouring breeze. 

For the third time within forty years the Bourbons had 
passed into exile ; but, this time, there was to be no return ! 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Arrival of the exiled family at Cowes— Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, is placed 
at their disposal — Refusal of the British Government to treat them otherwise than as 
private persons of distinction — Ungenerous attitude of the Press— Sympathy of the 
Duke of Wellington— Kindness shown by the Marquis of Anglesey and his 
daughters to the Duchesse de Berry — The Royal Family at Lulworth Castle— Tour 
made by Madame through the West and Midlands — Charles X., persecuted by his 
old creditors, obtains permission to remove to Holyrood — The Duchesse de Berry in 
London — She rejoins her relatives in Scotland — Death of her father, Francis I. of 
the Two Sicilies — Determination of Madame to endeavour to recover the Crown for 
her son, and to play an active part in the projected expedition herself — Extraordinary 
influence of Sir Walter Scott's novels upon her imagination — Futile efforts of 
Charles X. to persuade her to renounce her bellicose projects — The title of Regent of 
France conferred upon her — Madame at Bath — She receives enthusiastic promises 
of support from all parts of France — She sails for Rotterdam en route for Italy. 

SCARCELY had the Great Britain and the diaries 
Carroll passed the mouth of the port than two French 
ships of war, the Seine, a brig of twenty-six guns, and 
the Rodeur, a cutter of six guns, which had been lying in the 
roadstead, weighed anchor and followed them. Instructions 
had been sent to the commander of these two vessels to keep 
the Great Britain in sight until she had reached Portsmouth, 
the, Government of Louis-Philippe being apparently appre- 
hensive lest the exiles should overpower the crew and make for 
the coast of la Vendee. This precautionary measure had been 
kept from the knowledge of Charles X., who would certainly 
have warmly protested against it ; and it was not until he was 
out at sea that his attention was drawn to the presence of the 
escort. 

The short voyage was uneventful, and about two o'clock in 
the afternoon of August 18 the Great Britain arrived at Spit- 
head, whence she was towed to Cowes. Here the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme, the Duchesse de Berry, and the children landed 
under assumed names, and took up their quarters at an inn ; 
while the Due de Luxembourg and the Comtes de Choiseul 
and de Mesnard were despatched to London, to interview the 

285 



286 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Duke of Wellington on the subject of the future residence of 
the Royal Family. 

Wellington did not disguise from the deputation that recent 
events in Paris had produced great excitement in England, and 
that public feeling was very antagonistic to the Bourbons. It 
was, he said, therefore, advisable that Charles X., instead of 
disembarking at Portsmouth, should remain on the Great 
Britain until some country-house near the coast could be found 
for him, to which he might proceed without the risk of en- 
countering any hostile demonstration. The exiled sovereign 
had not long to wait, however, as on August 20 Mesnard 
returned, bringing a letter from William IV., in which he 
informed him that Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, had been 
placed at his disposal, until such time as he should determine 
in what part of the country he preferred to reside. At the 
same time, Mesnard was charged by the British Government 
to intimate to his master that the hospitality of our shores 
was only extended to him on the understanding that he 
abandoned all claims to be received with the honours due to 
his rank. 

Certain French historians have declaimed against what they 
are pleased to style the ungenerous reception accorded the 
fallen family by the British Government, which they contrast 
with that received by James II. on his arrival in France in 
1688. Nothing could be more absurd. Except that both the 
Stuart and the Bourbon sovereigns owed the loss of their crowns 
to their contemptuous disregard of public opinion, the two 
cases present no parallel. By the France of 1688, James II. 
was regarded as a martyr in the cause of the religion which was 
that of the vast majority of Frenchmen, and the Revolution 
marked the triumph of those principles to which the Govern- 
ment of Louis XIV. was most diametrically opposed. To the 
England of 1830, Charles X. was a baffled tyrant, who had not 
scrupled to shed the blood of his subjects in an attempt to 
violate the Charter and re-establish a system of government 
which Englishmen had rejected a century and a half ago. In 
the chief towns throughout the kingdom public meetings were 
being held " to express satisfaction at the late glorious occur- 
rences in France," that in Edinburgh being presided over by 
the Lord Provost ; while all the leading journals were pro- 
moting subscriptions for the benefit of the widows and orphans 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 287 

of those who had fallen on the three days of July. Again, the 
successor of James II. was William of Orange, the sworn 
enemy of France ; the successor of Charles X. was Louis- 
Philippe, with whom England had no quarrel, and whose sus- 
ceptibilities she was not unnaturally anxious to spare. In such 
circumstances, it would have surely been both impolitic and 
ridiculous had William IV. and his Ministers received the exiled 
Sovereign and his relatives other than as private persons of 
distinction. 

At the same time, it must be admitted that the English 
journals might well have displayed more generosity towards the 
fallen family which had come to seek an asylum on our shores. 
Here, for instance, are the terms in which the Times of 
August 19 announces the arrival of the exiles : 

" At length, the once Royal Family of France are arrived on 
our shores. The King, contrary to former reports, is described 
as putting on a cheerful aspect ; in another journal, however, 
he is said to have appeared disconsolate. The Duchesse 
d'Angouleme is said to be absorbed in grief. The Duchesse de 
Berry and her ill-starred children complete the wretched group. 
Perhaps, she would have done better to retire to Naples, to her 
father's Court: she has committed no crime. With regard to 
the Bourbons, the chiefs of the family, though the sight or near 
approach to misery is affecting, we cannot pity them. . . . 

" It is an undoubted truth that they have been much more 
kindly treated than they deserve. We suppose they may be 
admitted here, so far as their convenience requires, if they wish 
it, on their passage to another country : their baseness cannot 
contaminate our soil. It is said that, when they arrived at 
Cowes, Charles X. did not wish to land till he should hear the 
determination of the English Government, and that he for- 
warded a letter to the King of England by some gentlemen of 
his suite. What the answer of the King or the Government 
may be we do not, of course, know, but we take it for granted 
that they can only be received as a private family. It is 
said that they do not mean to stay here. We are glad of it. 
But, stay or go, they have, we presume, nothing more to expect 
than mere strangers." 

And on the following day : 

"Nothing we believe has yet transpired with respect to 
the self-invited guest at Portsmouth. . . We should rather 



288 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

think that the coolness of his reception here may induce 
him to put to the test the old proverb which is quoted, about 
' going farther.' " 

Happily for the credit of the nation, English Society showed 
far more sympathy for the exiles than the tone of the Press 
would lead one to suppose. Before the arrival of the deputation 
which had been despatched to London, Wellington wrote, in his 
private capacity, a very kind letter to his old friend Madame 
de Gontaut, assuring her that Charles X. and his family would 
be at liberty to reside wherever they pleased ; Lord and Lady 
Mornington, who brought the duke's letter to Portsmouth, sent 
a present of fruit to the royal children ; and the Marquis of 
Anglesey, governor of the Isle of Wight, and his daughters, 
visited the princesses at Cowes, and showed them every atten- 
tion, the ladies " going so far as to furnish the Duchesse de Berry 
with linen and even with dresses, as she had brought nothing 
away from Paris." * 

Early on the morning of August 23, Charles X. and the 
Dauphin left the Great Britain and embarked on a steamboat, 
which landed them at Weymouth, whence they proceeded to 
Lulworth Castle. The princesses and the children joined them 
there on the following day. 

Lulworth Castle — the seat of the old Catholic family of 
Weld — is situated about three miles from Lulworth Cove, so 
well known to tourists on the south coast, in the midst of an 
immense wooded park, surrounded by a high wall, nearly five 
miles in circumference. On the estate is a Catholic chapel, 
which is said to have been the first erected in England after the 
Reformation, and is described by Fanny Burney as a " Pantheon 
in miniature, ornamented with immense wealth and richness." 
The old castle presents with its four sombre towers a most 
imposing appearance, but it was at this period far from a com- 
fortable residence, as it had not been inhabited for years and was 
in a ruinous condition. Madame de Gontaut, indeed, declares 
that so bad was the state of some of the bedrooms that, in wet 
weather, their occupants had to put up umbrellas. 

At Lulworth, Charles X. dispensed with all ceremony and 
lived the life of a simple country-gentleman. To have attempted 
to keep up even an appearance of royal state would indeed have 
been absurd, since his private fortune was only a moderate one, 

1 Duchesse de Gontaut, Memoires. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 289 

and until the Duchesse de Berry's silver dinner-service arrived 
from Rosny he was compelled to make use of a plated one, like 
an ordinary mortal. Neither he, nor the Dauphin, nor the Due 
de Bordeaux, wore any decorations. The King had assumed 
the name of the Comte de Ponthieu, the Dauphin and Dauphine 
that of the Comte and Comtesse de Marnes, and the Duchesse 
de Berry that of the Comtesse de Rosny. 

Madame, though sincerely attached to her relatives, found 
time at Lulworth hang very heavily on her hands, and early in 
September, accompanied by the inevitable Mesnard and Madame 
de Bouille, she set off on a tour through the West and Midlands. 
She visited Wells, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Cheltenham, 
Malvern, and Birmingham, and made short stays at several 
country houses, notably at Kedleston, with Lord Scarsdale, 
and at Chatsworth, with the Duke of Devonshire, where she 
heroically refused to dance on account of the misfortunes of her 
family. 

Towards the end of the month, she returned to Lulworth, 
which the Royal Family shortly afterwards quitted for Holy- 
rood. The reason for this somewhat abrupt departure was the 
threatening attitude assumed by Charles X.'s old creditors, the 
commissaries of the Army of Conde, who laid wait for him when 
he took his walks in the park, and menaced him with legal 
proceedings if their claims were not satisfied. These claims, 
it should be mentioned, had already been adjudicated upon by 
the Paris courts, who had decided in favour of Charles X., but 
it was possible that the English courts might take a different 
view of the matter; and, any way, it would be extremely 
humiliating for the old King to be obliged to appear before 
them. He accordingly requested permission of the Govern- 
ment to return to his old asylum at Holy rood, and, this 
being immediately granted, on October 15, 1830, he sailed for 
Scotland. 

Charles X. was accompanied by the Dauphin and Dauphine 
and the Due de Bordeaux, but Mademoiselle under the charge 
of Madame de Gontaut, made the journey by land, as did the 
Duchesse de Berry, who spent some time in London before 
proceeding to the North. 

In London, the duchess occupied a house adjoining the 
Neapolitan Legation, and the Ambassador, the Count di 
Rudolfi, gave a grand dinner-party in her honour, at which the 
u 



290 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Duke of Wellington and other distinguished persons were 
present. This dinner-party gave great umbrage to Talleyrand, 
who had been appointed the representative of the July Monarchy 
in London, and who wrote to his Government that the Neapolitan 
Ambassador did not seem sufficiently to recollect that, if the 
Duchesse de Berry were the daughter of his Sovereign, the 
Queen of the French was his sister. He added that the princess 
" showed herself too much on the promenades and in places of 
public resort," and that people "found it difficult to understand 
her position." 1 And, in a subsequent despatch, he expressed 
his belief that she was in active communication with disaffected 
persons in Paris and la Vendee, and was probably meditating 
some attempt against the new dynasty. 

In November, Madame rejoined her relatives at Holyrood, 
where, in the words of Victor Hugo, Charles X. had found 

" Cette hospitalite melancholique et sombre 
Qu'on recoit et qu'on rend des Stuarts a Bourbons." 

The sombre and melancholy hospitality of the old palace of the 
Scottish Kings, and the dull and monotonous existence which 
Charles X. lived there, were, as we may suppose, not at all to the 
taste of a young woman so full of life and energy as the Duchesse 
de Berry, and she was profoundly bored. The northern winter, 
too, naturally proved extremely trying to one born under the 
blue sky of Naples, and she suffered much from rheumatism ; 
while, to make matters worse, the New Year brought the news 
of the death of her father, Francis I. of the Two Sicilies, to whom 
she was deeply attached. 

"You cannot conceive my grief on learning of the death of 
my father," she writes, under date January 9, 1831, to her old 
friend the Comtesse de Meffray. " It is an angel the more in 
Heaven, and we are much better off there than here. . . . The 
climate here is not cold, but windy. For a week I have not 
been able to go out ; it is very tedious." 2 

Tedious as her existence may have been, Madame, never- 
theless, found plenty to occupy her mind those dreary winter 
months. For the astute Talleyrand was not deceived in his 
belief that the princess was meditating some bold project 
against the new dynasty. The Revolution of July had made of 
this young woman, hitherto so indifferent to politics, an intriguer, 

1 Imbert de Saint- Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Vendie. 
■ E. Thinia, la Duchesse de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 291 

a conspirator, of the most ardent kind, and had aroused in her 
all the passion, the courage, and the determination which she 
had inherited from her grandmother, Maria Carolina. If 
Charles X. and the Dauphin regarded the catastrophe which 
had overtaken them as a decree of Providence, and were in- 
disposed to take any active steps to recover the Crown which 
they had permitted to slip so easily from them, she absolutely 
refused to allow the rights of her son to be sacrificed. How 
could any woman who possessed a spark of maternal pride, she 
asked, calmly resign herself to the idea that in three days the 
brilliant future of her child had been permanently changed ; 
that, in place of sitting upon the throne of his ancestors and 
making for himself an honourable place in history, he must 
spend the rest of his life as a "pretender" — one of those un- 
fortunate princes whose claims to kingly rank are a source of 
embarrassment and irritation to the sovereigns who extend to 
them a grudging hospitality, and of contemptuous amusement to 
the people over whom they aspire to rule ? 

"When one has secured the chance of succeeding to the 
Crown," the Duchesse du Maine had observed in 1714, in 
discussing the events which might happen after the death of 
Louis XIV., " one ought rather than suffer it to be snatched from 
one to set fire to the four corners of the kingdom." The 
Duchesse de Berry echoed the sentiments of that tempestuous 
little lady, and, almost from the day of her arrival in England, 
she had placed herself in communication with the most enter- 
prising spirits of the Legitimist party, with a view to the 
promotion of a counter-revolution which should hurl the 
treacherous usurper from his throne and set the Crown upon her 
son's head. 

And in this counter-revolution she herself intended to play 
an active part. The stories of Jeanne d'Arc, Mary Stuart, 
Henri IV., Maria Theresa, the Young Pretender, and other 
picturesque figures in history had always possessed for her a 
singular fascination, while she had greedily devoured the novels 
of Sir Walter Scott. At Holyrood she read these wonderful 
tales again, and the exploits of their Jacobite heroines, studied 
in so romantic an environment, inflamed her imagination to an 
extraordinary degree and inspired her with the determination 
to brave all dangers in her struggle against Fortune. " For her 
and for many of her partisans," writes Thureau Dangin, " it was 



292 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

less a question of executing a political design carefully matured 
than of transporting into the midst of the bourgeois France of 
1830 a chivalrous adventure, something resembling the action 
of one of Walter Scott's tales, which at this time exercised a 
supreme influence over all romantic minds." 1 A little later, 
when Madame made her appearance in la Vendee, one of her 
adherents from Nantes said to the members of the Royalist 
Committee in Paris, who were greatly embarrassed and alarmed 
by this escapade : " Gentlemen, cause Walter Scott to be 
hanged, for he is the real culprit." 2 

Charles X., who believed that where an old man of his 
experience had failed, a young woman with no knowledge of 
politics or the difficulties of government could not possibly 
succeed, was very far from approving of the bellicose projects 
of his daughter-in-law, and endeavoured to persuade her to 
renounce them, pointing out that her chance of success was 
extremely remote, and that she would be incurring the gravest 
risks to very little purpose. But to Madame the prospect of 
danger in France was infinitely preferable to that of ennui at 
Holyrood, and the more he sought to discourage her, the more 
resolute did she become. 

Finally, the old King ended by giving a kind of half- 
consent. He could, indeed, do nothing else, for, since he and 
the Dauphin had renounced their rights in favour of the 
Due de Bordeaux, it was to the mother of the little prince that 
the majority of Royalists looked for direction ; and to refuse 
altogether to countenance the Duchesse de Berry's plans would 
have exposed him to the most bitter recriminations from the 
more ardent section of the party, already irritated by what it 
considered his pusillanimous withdrawal from France, when he 
might have fallen back on la Vendee, rallied his adherents 
around him, and prolonged the struggle indefinitely. Even in 
his little court at Holyrood, the party which favoured energetic 
action — that is to say the party of Madame — was much more 
numerous than his own, and, if his pessimistic views were shared 
by the Dauphin and Dauphine and his now favourite counsellor, 
the Due de Blacas, the princess numbered among her supporters 
the Marshal de Bourmont — the conqueror of Algiers — three 
other ex-Ministers in the Baron d'Haussez, the Comte de 

1 Histoire de la Monarchic de Juillet. 

2 Chateaubriand, MSmoires d > outre-t07tile. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 293 

Montbel, and the Baron Capelle ; the Due Armand de Polignac, 
Damas, Mesnard, and Brissac. 

And so he made a virtue of necessity, and on January 27, 
1 83 1 conferred conditionally on the princess the title of Regent, 
in the event of her re-entering France, and signed an order to 
the following effect : 

" M. . . . chief of civil authority in the province of . . . will 
arrange with the principal leaders to draw up and publish a 
proclamation in favour of Henri V., in which it will be announced 
that Madame, Duchesse de Berry, will be Regent of the Kingdom 
during the minority of the King, her son, and that she will 
assume the title on her entry into France, for such is our will." 

Charles X., however, distrusting the adventurous character 
of the princess, firmly refused to allow either the Due de Bor- 
deaux or Madamoiselle to accompany their mother, and joined 
to her as counsellor the Due de Blacas, with authority to oppose 
any enterprise which might seem to him too hazardous. 

In the early spring, Madame, who felt that England would 
afford her much greater facilities for conspiracy than Scotland, 
left Holyrood, and, after spending a few days in London, 
established herself at Bath, in an unpretentious little two-storied 
house, with Madame de Bouille, a waiting-woman, and two men- 
servants. " Such," writes a correspondent of la Mode, " is the 
habitation of the greatest princess in Europe. Her meals are 
more frugal than those of the humblest Opposition journalist. 
She allows herself only a single lamp, and, at night, her staircase 
is luxuriously lighted by a tallow candle. This noble princess, 
owner of one of the finest collections of pictures in France, 1 can 
scarcely place on the walls of her apartment a few wretched 
engravings. But what does all that matter, provided that the 
poor of France are still in doubt as to her departure, provided 
that her hospital at Rosny is not closed, provided that her 
servants are not reduced to the sad condition of those of Mary 
Stuart ! Madame used to give of her superfluities ; now she 
shares her necessaries. The love of letters, the protection of the 
arts, the sweet pleasures of an ingenious benevolence, were the 
occupations of her life in France. Here, she appears to us to 

1 At the end of the previous year, however, Madame had sold between thirty and 
forty of the most valuable pictures in her collection, and, just before coming to Bath, 
she had also sold her library and a portion of her jewels. All her private property 
had been scrupulously respected by the insurgents when they invaded the Tuileries. 



294 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

be devoting herself to higher thoughts, to profound reflections. 
One might believe that she is preparing herself for the accom- 
plishment of some great task." 1 

That there was something of importance in the wind no one 
who kept their eyes open could entertain much doubt. Bath, 
during Madame 's stay, became a kind of Legitimist Mecca ; the 
comings and goings were incessant ; and the princess spent 
hours every day in conference with her adherents. All hailed 
her as the one on whom the hopes of the party were centred ; 
all professed the most unalterable devotion ; all urged her to 
action, and assured her that the July Monarchy was already 
tottering to its fall, and that her reappearance on the scene 
would be the signal for its overthrow. 

And from every part of France came letters, addresses, 
poetical effusions, the same passionate loyalty, the same bound- 
less confidence. Who can wonder that, in this atmosphere of 
enthusiasm and of flattery, the head of the Duchesse de Berry 
should have been a little turned ; that sentiment should have 
prevailed over reason ; and that she should have been convinced 
that it was her destiny to raise the royal standard, and drive 
the criminal usurper from France, as Jeanne d'Arc had driven 
the English ! 

Towards the end of May, Madame returned to Holyrood to 
take leave of her relatives. Thence she repaired to London, 
and on June 18, accompanied by the Due de Blacas, the Comtes 
de Mesnard and de Rosambo, and five servants, she sailed for 
Rotterdam, en route for Italy, where she had decided to organise 
the expedition from which she anticipated such great results. 

1 La Mode, May 1 6, 183 1, cited by Imbert de Saint- Amand, la Duchesse de Berry 
et la Vendee. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

The Duchesse de Berry and her companions arrive at Sestri — The French Am- 
bassador insists on their expulsion from the Sardinian States — Madame establishes 
herself at Massa, where she is treated en souveraine — Her letter to her friend the 
Comtesse de Meffray — She visits Florence, but her expulsion from Tuscany js 
immediately demanded, and she removes to Lucca — She sets out for Naples, on 
a visit to her half-brother, Ferdinand II., King of the Two Sicilies — Her stay in 
Rome — The Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli — His friendship with Madame — Arrival of 
the princess at Naples — A sad contrast — Second visit of Madame to Rome — Her 
court at Massa — Illusions of the princess and her partisans in regard to the situation 
of affairs in France — Attitude of Madame on the question of foreign intervention on 
behalf of her son — Her adherents in France urge her to action — She sends orders to 
the Legitimist leaders to prepare to rise in arms — And departs secretly for Marseilles, 
on board a Sardinian steamer, the Carlo Alberto. 

THE Duchesse de Berry and her companions travelled 
leisurely through Holland, Germany, Switzerland, 
and Northern Italy, and in the second week in July 
arrived at Sestri, on the frontier of the Sardinian States and 
Tuscany. During their journey they had preserved the strictest 
incognito, and flattered themselves that their presence in Italy 
was quite unknown to the Government of Louis-Philippe. But 
at Genoa, Rosambo, while walking in the street, had been 
recognised by the French consul, and from that moment they 
had been kept under close surveillance. 

From Sestri, Madame opened communications with some of 
the Legitimist leaders who had established themselves for that 
purpose at Nice, and everything was proceeding smoothly, 
when, one fine day, the Baron de Barante, French Ambassador 
at Turin, sought an audience of the King of Sardinia, informed 
him that his dominions were the centre of a formidable con- 
spiracy against the French Government, and demanded, as a 
proof of his Majesty's friendly disposition towards France, the 
immediate expulsion of the Duchesse de Berry and her partisans 
from Sardinian territory. Charles Albert, although his sym- 
pathies were entirely with the exiled princess, did not care to 
risk a quarrel with his powerful neighbour, and therefore 

295 



296 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

intimated to the Duchesse de Berry that, much to his regret, 
he was unable to grant her an asylum. 

Accordingly, on July 27, Madame left Sestri, and established 
herself at Massa. In this town, she was at liberty to conspire 
to her heart's content, since it was situated in the duchy of 
Modena, whose sovereign, Francis IV., had declared war to the 
knife on revolutionaries of every nationality, and was the only 
prince who still refused to recognise Louis-Philippe. He gave 
the princess a most cordial reception, placed at her disposal the 
ducal palace of Massa, and treated her en souveraine. A military 
guard was stationed before her door ; she held a little court, 
and all the principal persons of the town hastened to pay their 
respects to her. Madame, on her side, was delighted to find 
herself once more in her native land, and treated with the con- 
sideration which was her due ; and we find her writing to the 
Comtesse de Meffray : 

" You will be astonished, my dear Susette, to learn that I 
am in our dear Italy. I am going to take the baths of Lucca 
for my rheumatism. You can conceive the pleasure I have 
derived from seeing again the beloved country, and hearing the 
dear mother-tongue, after sixteen years of vicissitudes. Not- 
withstanding that malicious persons seek to give my journey 
another destination, I am here to travel through beautiful Italy, 
to breathe the warm air, and to take the baths, of which I have 
great need, after breathing so much cold and humid air. We 
have twenty-three degrees of heat. Adieu, my dear friend, send 
me your news, and believe in the friendship of 

" Madame Guiseppa Sannaconi 1 

" Poste-restante, Bagni di Lucca." 

From Madame 's repudiation of the reports which " malicious 
persons" were circulating as to the object of her journey to 
Italy, it would appear that she was apprehensive lest this letter 
might fall into other hands than those for which it was intended ; 
but she might have spared herself this precaution, as, thanks to 
the indiscretions of her partisans and the vigilance of its own 
agents, the French Government never entertained the smallest 
doubt of her designs, and was determined to do everything 
possible to thwart them. Thus, when, after a course of the 
baths of Lucca, the princess paid a visit to Florence, she had 

1 Letter of July 31, 1831, in Thirria, la Duchesse de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 297 

not been there four days when the French char gt-d 1 affaires, the 
Comte de Ganay, demanded and obtained her expulsion from 
Tuscany. The Grand Duke Leopold, like Charles Albert, 
feared to offend the government of Louis-Philippe. 

From Florence, the Duchesse de Berry returned to Massa, 
but at the beginning of September removed to Lucca. As no 
French diplomatic agent was accredited to that little Court, she 
was not molested, and the Duke — whose son Ferdinand was 
afterwards to marry Mademoiselle — and his Ministers showed 
her every attention. 

While at Lucca, the princess wrote to her half-brother, 
Ferdinand II., King of the Two Sicilies, expressing a wish to 
pay a brief visit to Naples, of course, incognito. His Majesty, 
though in reality much embarrassed by this letter — he subse- 
quently took the precaution to assure the French Ambassador 
that not the slightest political significance need be attached to 
his sister's visit — answered that he would be delighted to receive 
her ; and, at the end of October, she set out for Naples, accom- 
panied by Mesnard and Brissac. On her way, Madame stopped 
for a fortnight in Rome, much to the alarm of the Papal officials, 
who hastened to assure the Ambassador of Louis-Philippe that 
every possible care should be taken to prevent the presence of 
the princess being made the occasion of any manifestations dis- 
pleasing to the French Government. These precautions, how- 
ever, were quite unnecessary, as the proscribed lady preserved 
the strictest incognito, and consented to receive very few 
visitors. 

One of those in whose favour she made an exception was a 
young Neapolitan diplomatist, the Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli. 
The count, who was at this time in his twenty-sixth year, was 
a member of one of the most distinguished families of Naples, 
which traced its descent from one of the Norman barons who 
had conquered the Two Sicilies in the eleventh century. His 
father, the Prince of Campo-Franco, had been First Gentleman 
of the Chamber to Francis I., and was now Grand-Chancellor 
of the Two Sicilies. He himself had been educated for the 
priesthood, with the intention, no doubt, of blossoming into 
an archbishop or a cardinal at no very distant date, but had 
eventually decided on a diplomatic career, and had been attached 
to the Sicilian Legations in Brazil and Spain. 

The Count Lucchesi had a great deal to recommend him 



298 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

besides his ancient lineage. He was a tall, handsome, dis- 
tinguished-looking young man, with cultured tastes and most 
agreeable manners — "en tout point un charmant cavalier? 1 Nor 
did he lack solid qualities. He was an extremely promising 
diplomatist, and the following year received the appointment 
of charge-d 'affaires at The Hague, and a brave, chivalrous, and 
honourable gentleman. 

The count and Madame were very old friends; they had 
been children together in Sicily, and appear to have met more 
than once subsequently in Paris. He came to wait upon her 
nearly every day, and was always admitted. What more 
natural ? Had they not known each other as boy and girl, and 
might not a princess who was travelling incognito be permitted 
a little latitude ? " He appeared very attached ' to Madame? 
writes Mesnard, " and the recollection of their relations in child- 
hood rendered him equally dear to her." How dear, poor old 
Mesnard was to discover to his cost a little later on ! 

The Duchesse de Berry reached Naples on November 18, 
and received a very cordial welcome from Ferdinand II. and 
the Royal Family. She was lodged in the Palazzo Chiatamone, 
where she was visited by the Ministers and the principal persons 
of the Court ; but, since she had come incognito, there were, of 
course, no official presentations. Great as was her delight to 
be once more in Naples and in the midst of her family, the 
sight of her native city can scarcely have failed to inspire sad 
reflections. She had left it, nearly sixteen years earlier, a happy 
young girl, with the most splendid of prospects before her. She 
returned the widow of a murdered prince, the mother of an 
exiled one, an outcast from the country whose queen she had 
expected one day to be, her footsteps dogged, her every 
movement watched, by the minions of a usurper, obliged even 
to forgo the consideration to which her rank entitled her in 
order to save her relatives from embarrassment and annoyance. 

On December 4, Madame took an affectionate leave of her 
relatives, who were perhaps not quite so reluctant to see her 
depart as would have been the case in ordinary circumstances, 
and set out on her return-journey to Massa, where she was to 
complete the preparations for her expedition to France. On 
her way, she passed some days in Rome, where the charming 
Count Lucchesi-Palli was again much in evidence, and paid her 
1 Souvenirs du Comte de Mesnard. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 299 

Royal Highness the most assiduous attentions. But neither 
Mesnard, nor Brissac, nor the princess's dame pour accompagner, 
Madame de Podenas, who had joined her mistress at Naples, 
appears to have had the slightest suspicion how far this intimacy 
had progressed. On December 14 — a date which, as we shall 
see hereafter, was a very important one in the princess's life — 
the Duchesse de Berry left Rome for Massa, where her partisans 
were impatiently awaiting her return. 

During the next four months, Madame held at Massa a little 
court, "which resembled at once the Coblentz of the hnigris 
and the Paris of the Fronde." 1 Politicians of the Restoration, 
young men burning to repair the discreditable inaction of the 
Legitimists during the days of July, young women of the 
fashionable world, conspired there gaily and foolishly. There 
was the Due de Blacas ; the Marechal de Bourmont and his 
two sons, Charles and Adolphe ; the Comte and Vicomte de 
Kergorlay ; the Vicomte de Saint-Priest, formerly Ambassador 
of Charles X. at Madrid, and his wife ; the Comte de Roche- 
Fontenelles, a former officer of the Royal Guard ; the Marquis 
and Marquise de Podenas ; the Comte and Comtesse de Bouille ; 
Mesnard, Brissac, and Rosambo. 

Blacas, who was at Massa less as a partisan of Madame than 
as the representative of Charles X., disapproved strongly of the 
princess's projects, and warned her that the inhabitants of the 
southern provinces were much too fickle in their political 
sympathies for any reliance to be placed in them, and that the 
la Vendue of 1832 was no longer the la Vendee of 1793. But 
the more enterprising spirits of the little court of Massa scouted 
the very idea of defeat, and represented the old diplomatist as 
a pusillanimous creature, who, if he were allowed to have his 
way, would paralyse her heroism and destroy every chance of 
another Restoration ; and at the beginning of 1832 she sent him 
to Scotland, on the pretext of obtaining the official adhesion of 
Charles X. to her project. 

Once delivered from the remonstrances of this prudent 
counsellor, Madame began active preparations for her expedition. 
Every day she took a walk of several miles, in order to accustom 
herself to the fatigues which she might be called upon to endure, 
while her nights were passed in writing or deciphering despatches. 
Her confidence passed all bounds ; in imagination, she already 

1 Henri Martin, Histoire de France. 



300 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

saw herself ruling at the Tuileries in the name of Henri V., and, 
in anticipation of this glorious moment, she proceeded to draft 
a number of Ordinances. One appointed a provisional govern- 
ment, which was to consist of Marechal Victor, Due de Bellune, 
the Marquis de Pastoret, Chateaubriand, and the Comte de 
Kergorlay ; another convoked the States-General at Toulouse ; 
a third re-established the old provinces, with extended local 
liberties ; a fourth abolished part of the indirect taxes ; and so 
forth. Nothing was forgotten, not even the minor nominations 
to the Household of the young King. 1 

It must be admitted that the illusions entertained by 
Madame and her friends at Massa were not without excuse. 
Louis-Philippe had now definitely severed himself from the 
Republican party, and had thus succeeded in conciliating the 
legitimist States of Europe. But his reactionary policy was 
most unpopular with the working-classes in France, and their 
discontent had found expression in formidable insurrections at 
Lyons and Grenoble, which might at any moment be repeated 
on a much greater scale in the capital. The attitude of the 
Republicans had naturally afforded much encouragement to 
the Legitimists, and the reports which they despatched to 
Massa held out the most brilliant hopes. They represented 
that not only the South and West, but Paris itself, was ready 
to rise on behalf of the young King. In la Vendee, the fire- 
eating Baron de Charette — husband of the younger daughter 
of the Due de Berry by Amy Brown — had organised a general 
levy of the peasants, and had divided all the country into 
military districts, at the head of which the nobles had placed 
themselves. At Nantes, at Angers, at Rennes, at Lyons, at 
Bordeaux, at Marseilles, and other towns, the Legitimist agents 
had distributed large sums of money, and had enrolled a great 
number of civil servants and military officers of the Restoration, 
adventurers, and unemployed working-men. The mass of the 
people, according to them, was so disgusted with the Government 
that, even if it did not render active assistance to the movement, 
it would not stir a finger to oppose it ; while the Army was so 
full of disaffection that the first success of the Duchesse de 
Berry would probably be the signal for it to come over to her 
en masse. In a word, the throne of the usurper was ready to 
crumble at the slightest shock. 

1 Thureau-Dangin, Histoire de la Monarchic de Juillet. 



\I^2 




LOUIS AUGUSTE VICTOR DE BOURMONT, COMTE DE GHAISNE, 
MARECHAL, DE FRANCE 

FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY DELPECH 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 301 

" The disaffection," ran one of these reports, " is daily making 
fresh progress. The violent repression to which the Govern- 
ment has been obliged to have recourse, in order to resist so 
many attacks, has not failed to excite great indignation. At 
the same time, amid the generality of the population, disen- 
chantment has succeeded to enthusiasm. None of the Utopias 
which the Opposition has cherished for the past fifteen years 
has been realised. So many promises culminating in so many 
lies, so many sacrifices without compensation, have produced 
in the minds of those who had at first welcomed the new rtgime, 
a sort of political atheism, accompanied by a profound indiffer- 
ence. In the midst of this general apathy, Madame, having on 
her side the ardent devotion of the southern provinces and the 
warlike sympathies of la Vendee, will be able to attempt every- 
thing, and to change everything in France, by a bold coup de 
main. The spirit of the Army is uncertain and wavering. A 
first success will bring about defections, and, once a regiment 
has passed under the banners of her Royal Highness, the 
question will be settled." l 

It has been asserted that the hopes of the Duchesse de 
Berry did not rest entirely on the success of her intrigues in 
France ; that she had endeavoured to procure the armed inter- 
vention of the Powers, and that she believed her appearance in 
the South would be the signal for a foreign invasion. This is 
quite untrue. As her letters to her friend the Comtesse de 
Meffray prove, the idea that her son should owe his crown to 
foreign armies was most repugnant to her. " To see my son 
re-established on the throne by the foreigner," she writes, " is 
an idea which I cannot endure, and I do not know whether I 
should not prefer that he never returned." 

So far from desiring another invasion, she considered that a 
counter-revolution was the only means of averting it, for, very 
ill-informed in regard to the relations between the Government 
of Louis-Philippe and the Powers, she believed that it was 
impossible for the latter to tolerate such acts as the occupation 
of Ancona, and that war was only a question of months, or 
perhaps weeks : " There is nothing but my presence in France, 
at the head of the French, regulating, in accord with them, the 
rights of my son, which can preserve our country from this 
disaster." 

1 Published by Nettemcnt, Mbnoires sur Madame, la duchesse de Berri. 



3 o2 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

At the same time, provided that a considerable proportion 
of the nation rallied to her standard, she considered that it 
would then be perfectly justifiable to accept the assistance of 
the Powers to terminate, in her son's favour, the civil war in 
which she was about to engage : and she was confident that 
such assistance would be forthcoming. " It is one thing," she 
continues, " to see the Powers come to my aid and assist in an 
enterprise which has been opened successfully ; it is another to 
summon the foreigner purely and simply to re-establish Legiti- 
macy. All the monarchies are solid in support of each other, 
and, if the white banner is raised by me, and sustains and pro- 
longs the struggle, is not it their duty to avenge Legitimacy 
against a criminal usurper ? " * 

As spring approached, the Duchesse de Berry's partisans in 
France grew more confident and more impatient. Charette 
wrote from la Vendee that " every day that she delayed was a 
day stolen from the heritage of her son " ; while the Royalists of 
Paris declared that, if she did not hasten, they would begin the 
movement without her. Madame decided that the time for action 
had come, and on April 20, 1832, the Marechal de Bourmont, 
to whom the military command of the movement had been 
entrusted, despatched, in her name, orders to the Legitimist 
leaders in the towns of the West to be ready to rise in arms 
the moment they were informed of her arrival on French soil, 
adding that such news might be expected during the first three 
days in May. 

Contrary to the advice of Charette and the Amazonian 
Comtesse de la Rochejaquelein, it had been decided to subor- 
dinate the movement in the West to the rising of the South. 
Madame had resolved to land near Marseilles ; and it was 
that city, which had been the first to welcome her on her arrival 
in France sixteen years before, which was to be given the 
honour of striking the first blow in the cause of her son. 

On April 23, the Vicomte de Saint-Priest, posing as a 
Spanish nobleman, chartered, at Leghorn, a little Sardinian 
steamer, the Carlo Alberto \ to convey him and his suite to Bar- 
celona and Gibraltar. At ten o'clock on the night of the 24th, 
the Duchesse secretly quitted the palace at Massa, and accom- 
panied by Brissac, Mesnard, her femme d'atours Mile. Lebeschu, 
and Madame de Saint-Priest, walked to a lonely spot on the 
1 E. Thirria, la Duchesse de Berry, 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 303 

coast some four miles distant, whence a fisherman's boat con- 
veyed the princess and the first three to the Carlo Alberto. 
Madame de Saint-Priest, charged with the task of concealing 
the princess's departure, returned to Massa, and, a few days 
later, relates the incidents of that eventful night in a letter to 
her father, the Due de Caraman : 

" If you had seen her furtively quitting her residence, lean- 
ing on Brissac's arm, gain on foot the beach, four miles distant 
from the palace, and there await the boat with a calm and good 
conscience ; sleeping for three hours wrapped in her sable cloak, 
while awaiting the boat that was to come to fetch her ; then, in 
a fisherman's barque, gain the ship, where she was received with 
acclamations by all the French who were expecting her, you 
would have felt your heart beat with admiration, and, if you 
had wanted for courage, she would, by her example, have 
inspired the most timid, as I was. I kissed her hands and 
bathed them with my tears, and she said to me : ' I shall take 
great care of your husband ; we have God on our side. Look 
at the weather, it is superb ; we shall be there in forty-five 
hours.' " » 

Madame and her companions found awaiting them on the 
deck of the Carlo Alberto the Vicomte de Saint-Priest ; the 
Marechal de Bourmont and his two sons, Adolphe and Charles ; 
the Comte and Vicomte de Kergorlay ; Adolphe Sala, a former 
officer of the Royal Guard, and two other adventurous spirits, 
Edouard Ledhuy and Alexis Sabatier. The captain of the 
steamer, a Genoese named Giorgio Zahra, who appears to have 
had no suspicion of the identity of his passengers, was consider- 
ably astonished when, as soon as Signora Rosa Itagliano — as 
Madame called herself — had come on board, he was directed 
to make, not for Barcelona, but for Marseilles. However, he 
obeyed, and the Carlo Alberto stood away for the coast of 
Provence. 

1 Published by Thirria, la Duchesse de Berry 



CHAPTER XXV 

Arrival of the Carlo Alberto off Marseilles — A perilous landing — The Duchesse de 
Berry and her companions take refuge in a gamekeeper's hut amidst the woods, to 
await the promised rising at Marseilles — A sleepless night — A comic-opera insurrec- 
tion — "All has failed ; you must leave France ! " — Madame refuses to accept defeat, 
and insists on setting out for la Vendee — A night's journey on foot — A chivalrous 
Republican — Madame and her companions reach the Chateau of Bonrecueil — The 
Government, under the delusion that the princess is still on board the Carlo Alberto, 
despatches a cruiser in pursuit of that vessel — Capture of the Carlo Alberto — Mile. 
Lebeschu, femme d'atours to Madame, is mistaken for her mistress — Arrival of the 
Carlo Alberto at Toulon : absurd situation — The authorities order the supposed 
Duchesse de Berry to be conducted to Ajaccio, where the mistake is discovered — 
Total ignorance of the Government as to the whereabouts of the princess : letter of 
the Minister of the Interior to the Minister of the Marine. 

THE voyage, much to the vexation of the adventurous 
princess and her companions, occupied nearly twice 
as long as she had anticipated ; and it was not until 
the night of April 28-29 tnat tnev sighted the Planier light- 
house, near which they had decided to land. They had 
arranged that a fishing-boat should be in readiness at this spot 
to take them on shore ; but the night was pitch dark, and a gale 
had sprung up, which threatened considerable danger to any 
light craft, and for some time they hesitated to signal to it. 
However, it was imperative to land before dawn, for not far off 
they perceived the lights of a cruiser, which had been ordered 
to watch the coast. Accordingly, after waiting until two o'clock 
in the morning, in the hope of an improvement in the weather, 
they displayed two lanterns at the masthead, as a signal to 
their friends on shore, and the boat immediately put off. The 
sea was running so high that she was dashed violently against 
the Carlo Alberto's side and very nearly swamped. Never- 
theless, as soon as she had been baled out, the Duchesse de 
Berry sprang boldly into her, followed by the Marshal de 
Bourmont and his son Charles, Brissac, Mesnard, and the Comte 
de Kergorlay ; and, after a very unpleasant quarter of an hour, 
they found themselves safe upon French soil. 

One of the leaders of the Marseilles Legitimists was await- 

3°4 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 305 

ing them, and conducted them along a narrow path, known 
to few save smugglers, to a gamekeeper's hut, hidden amidst 
the woods, where they were to await the result of the rising 
which was preparing in the city. The distance was not great, 
but the darkness was intense, and the road so rough that day 
was already beginning to break when, wet, bruised, and exhausted, 
the princess and her companions reached their destination. 

Among all the singular instances of the vicissitudes of fortune 
which history affords, few are more striking than the contrast 
presented by the arrival of the Duchesse de Berry at Marseilles 
in May 1832, amid the ringing of church-bells, the firing of 
cannon, the waving of flags, and the acclamations of an 
immense multitude, and her arrival on that dark and stormy 
April night, sixteen years later. But the valiant princess hoped 
and believed that, ere many hours had passed, she would make 
another triumphal entry into the Phocean city. All that day 
she remained in the hut, but with the evening there came a 
messenger with a note, which informed her that the rising of 
the Legitimists of Marseilles had been fixed for daybreak on 
the morrow. 

Madame did not close her eyes the livelong night. "It 
seemed to her," writes Nettement, "that time was no longer 
passing, and the hands of her watch, which she consulted every 
minute, appeared motionless on the dial." 1 At length, the 
dawn came creeping through the trees — the dawn which was to 
witness the movement which, she confidently believed, would set 
the South on fire from the Alps to the Atlantic. Slowly the 
hours went by, but no news came from Marseilles. Could it be, 
the poor lady asked herself, that something had occurred which 
had rendered it necessary to postpone the rising ? Could it be 
that, after all the confident predictions of success that she had 
received, it had failed ? Why, in any case, did they not 
communicate with her, and spare her this horrible suspense ? 
At length, about one o'clock in the afternoon, the long-expected 
messenger arrived, with a note from the Due des Cars. 
Trembling with eagerness, she tore it open. It contained only 
a few words ; but they seemed to leap up and strike her in 
the face — 

" All has failed ; you must leave France!" 

1 Memoires sur Madame, la duchesse de Bern', 



3 o6 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

But let us see what had happened that morning at 
Marseilles. 

For some time past, the French Government had observed 
at Marseilles and other towns in the South symptoms which 
foreshadowed a Legitimist rising ; and it was also aware that 
persons known to be attached to this party had been constantly 
passing to and fro between Paris, these towns, and Italy. 
Finally, its agents at Leghorn had reported that the Duchesse 
de Berry was in treaty for the purchase of the Carlo Alberto, 
though it was not until the previous night that news reached 
the authorities of Marseilles that the vessel in question, with 
the Marshal de Bourmont and other Legitimists on board, had 
quitted Leghorn. These circumstances pointed very plainly to 
a descent by the Massa exiles, with, in all probability, the 
Duchesse de Berry herself at their head, upon the Mediter- 
ranean coast, followed by a rising in one or other of the chief 
towns in the South, the authorities of which were, in con- 
sequence, fully prepared for such an emergency. 

Thus, in any case, the partisans of Madame would have 
found the task before them one of exceptional difficulty, for 
secrecy is nearly always an important factor in a successful 
insurrection ; but the utter lack of organisation and cohesion 
amongst them, to say nothing of personal courage, rendered it 
altogether hopeless. 

Towards dawn, a number of Legitimists began assembling 
on the Esplanade de la Tourette, for, through some extra- 
ordinary misunderstanding, a rumour had been circulated 
that the Marshal de Bourmont was to land there and assume 
command. A few of the bolder spirits carried muskets, 
but the greater part had preferred to arm themselves only 
with knives and pistols — weapons which could easily be con- 
cealed. 

After waiting a considerable time, without seeing any sign 
of the marshal's approach, part of the crowd dispersed, under 
the impression that no rising would take place that day. Of 
the rest, one section proceeded along the quays, hauled down 
the tricolour from two or three public buildings, and tore it 
to shreds ; while the other marched to the Church of Saint- 
Laurent, in the Old Town, with the intention of sounding the 
tocsin. The verger, however, refused to produce the key of the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 307 

belfry, so the conspirators had to content themselves with 
hoisting a white flag. 

About eight o'clock, another band, which had apparently 
been waiting for the arrival of the gentlemen who were dis- 
porting themselves on the quays and in the Old Town, marched 
through the streets of the Quartier Saint-Jean, to occupy the 
Palais de Justice. The insurgents carried a white flag and 
raised shouts of " Vive Henri V. ! Vive la religion ! Vive la 
croix ! " Their ranks were soon swelled by a crowd of idlers 
and women, but the majority of the population manifested no 
enthusiasm and made no attempt to join them. The fact was 
that the leaders of the conspiracy had been so fearful of a 
premature revelation of their plans that they had only admitted 
a comparatively small number of persons into the secret ; and 
even the most violent antagonists of a government can scarcely 
be expected to take up arms against it at a few minutes' 
notice. 

On reaching the Palais de Justice, they found a half-company 
of the 13th Regiment of the Line on guard there. The officer 
in command, a sub-lieutenant named Chazal, called upon the 
crowd to disperse, and, finding his summons unheeded, pounced 
upon a gentleman who, from the violence of his gesticulations, 
appeared to be the leader, seized him by the collar, and dragged 
him off to the guard-house, while his men arrested two or three 
others. Disconcerted by the fate of their leaders, the rest of the 
valiant band suddenly recollected important engagements 
elsewhere and dispersed. 

While this little comedy was being played in front of the 
Palais de Justice, the commandant of Marseilles, with a few 
soldiers, marched into the Old Town, and restored the tricolour 
to its accustomed place on the Church of Saint-Laurent, the 
partisans of the opposition flag watching the operation from a 
safe distance, without attempting any interference. By nine 
o'clock, the troops of the garrison and the National Guards were 
all under arms and clamouring to be led against the insurgents. 
But there were no insurgents against whom to lead them. 
They had all gone home to breakfast ! 

And so ended the comic-opera insurrection of Marseilles. 

" All has failed ; you must leave France ! " ran the note 
which had informed the Duchesse de Berry of the ignominious 



3 o8 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

collapse of the movement from which she had expected so 
much. It was sage advice, for, since the Legitimists of Mar- 
seilles had been unable to effect anything beyond covering 
themselves with ridicule, those of the other towns of the South 
were very unlikely to bestir themselves. Madame, however, 
repudiated it with indignation. What ! Leave France within 
forty-eight hours of her return ! Accept defeat because the 
first move in the game she was playing had gone against 
her ! Never had she heard a more disgraceful proposition ! 
Besides, how were they to leave France ? The Carlo Alberto 
had sailed for Rosas, in Catalonia, to avoid the too pressing 
attentions of the French cruiser, and, now that the alarm had 
been given, the coast would be most vigilantly guarded, and, in 
all probability, the roads to the Italian frontier as well. There 
was, she declared, but one course to pursue, and honour and 
expediency both pointed to it : they must take refuge in the 
country of Charette and of Cathelineau, and start that very 
night. La Vendee remained to her ; la Vendee was waiting to 
rise in arms the moment it received her orders ; to la Vendee 
she must go ! 

Her companions endeavoured to persuade her to remain 
where she was, representing that they had neither horse, nor 
mule, nor carriage. She replied that she was an excellent 
walker, and, rather than fail in her engagements, would make 
the entire journey on foot. " If I abandon la Vendee to-day," 
she added, " it will be able to address to me the reproaches which 
it has had the right to address to more than one member of the 
family. I have promised it that it can count on me, and it is 
counting. Forward ! " And, as soon as darkness had fallen, 
she took leave of her humble host and set out on her journey 
across France. 

The princess was accompanied by Bourmont, Mesnard, 
Brissac, and two Provencal Legitimists, the Vicomte de Ville- 
neuve-Bargemont and Auguste de Bonrecueil, son of the Baron 
de Bonrecueil. The baron's chateau was situated near Lambesc, 
in the department of the Bouches-du-Rhone, and, if Madame 
could reach it without being recognised, the most perilous part 
of her journey would be over, as Bonrecueil was an important 
local personage, who would no doubt be able to procure her a 
passport under an assumed name. The way was rough and 
dangerous, and the night so dark that they could scarcely see 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 309 

a yard in front of them. But it was of the utmost importance 
to get as far as possible from Marseilles before dawn, and 
accordingly they trudged on for five hours. Then the guide 
whom the gamekeeper had procured for them declared that he 
had lost his way, and, as the princess was by this time so tired 
that she could scarcely put one foot before the other, they 
decided to remain where they were until the morning. Her 
companions took off their cloaks and spread them on the 
ground ; and Madame lay down, with a valise for her pillow, 
and was soon asleep. 

She awoke in a little while and complained that she was 
perishing of cold. Her friends, greatly alarmed, began search- 
ing for some place where she could take shelter, and eventually 
discovered a deserted hut, used by the shepherds of the neigh- 
bourhood in bad weather. Here they lighted a fire of turf and 
furze, and Madame was able to pass the remainder of the night 
in comparative comfort. 

In the morning, they succeeded in procuring a little cart, in 
which the princess continued her journey ; but, when night fell, 
they were still many miles from the Chateau of Bonrecueil, 
After the hardships she had endured since her arrival in France, 
Madame 's companions felt that it was impossible to expose her 
to another night in the open, and learning from their guide that 
there was a fervent Royalist living in an adjacent village, they 
determined to take shelter with him. When, however, they 
reached the house, they found that he was away from home. 

The travellers were at a loss what to do, when the guide 
informed them that the absent Royalist had a brother living 
close at hand, who was, however, a confirmed Republican. 
Madame inquired if he were an honourable man, and, on being 
told that he had that reputation, at once announced her inten- 
tion of going to him, disclosing her identity, and appealing to 
his chivalry. Her companions endeavoured to reason with her, 
but to no purpose, and, with many misgivings, they followed 
her to the house. " Monsieur," exclaimed the princess, as soon 
as the owner appeared, " you are a Republican, I know ; but 
no political opinions can be applied to a proscribed woman. I 
am the Duchesse de Berry, and I am come to ask you for an 
asylum." Her host, after recovering from his first astonish- 
ment, bowed respectfully, and informed her that his house was 
at her disposal, and that she might count upon him as she 



310 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

would have counted upon his brother. He, in fact, entertained 
them most hospitably, and obtained a carriage for Madame, in 
which, at five o'clock on the following afternoon, she arrived 
safely at the Chateau of Bonrecueil. 1 

Notwithstanding the assistance rendered her by this chival- 
rous Republican — whose name, by the way, was never permitted 
to transpire — the Duchesse de Berry might not have found it 
so easy to escape recognition during the first stage of her 
journey, if the Government had entertained the least suspicion 
as to her whereabouts. But so far from imagining that she 
was making for la Vendue, the Ministers and the authorities of 
Marseilles, as their correspondence proves, did not even know 
that she was in France. They believed, on the contrary, that 
she was still on the Carlo Alberto, and, by the direction of the 
Minister of Marine, a cruiser, the Sphinx, was despatched in 
pursuit of that interesting vessel. 

The Carlo Alberto, after touching at Rosas, was on her way 
back to Marseilles, doubtless with the intention of landing the 
rest of her passengers whenever a favourable opportunity should 
present itself. On the evening of May 4, she had just anchored 
under the Ile-Verte, in the bay of la Ciotat, to obtain coal and 
provisions, when the cruiser, which had been vainly searching 
for her for the last three days, made her appearance upon the 
scene, lowered a boat, and sent two officers on board. 

The officers found Saint-Priest, the Vicomte de Kergor- 
lay, Adolphe de Bourmont, Sala, and Mile. Lebeschu, femme 
d'atitours to the Duchesse de Berry, at dinner on the bridge, all 
of whom, of course, gave the names which they had assumed 
for the occasion. They questioned the captain and the super- 
cargo, and the answers returned were so unsatisfactory as to 
leave no doubt that this was the vessel of which they were in 
quest. Accordingly, the cruiser took her in tow and proceeded 
to Toulon. 

And now began a most diverting little comedy. 

Mile. Lebeschu, in both features and build, was not unlike 
her mistress, and the commander of the Sphinx, who had never 
seen Madame, was persuaded that the lady he had captured 
was none other than the Duchesse de Berry. He wrote to 

1 Souvenirs du Comte de Mesnard. General Dermancourt (la Vendee et Madame) 
says that Madame went alone to the house, but Mesnard's account is to be 
preferred. 




MLLE. MATHILDE LEBESCHU 

FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY BAZIN, AFTER THE PAINTING BY E. FECHNER 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 311 

that effect to the maritime prefect of Toulon, who, in his turn, 
sent the following telegraphic despatch to the Minister of 
Marine : — 

" The woman who is on board occupies the principal cabin. 
She is the object of the greatest deference. The vessel is most 
luxuriously furnished ; its interior is covered with the Arms of 
the Due de Bordeaux. The lady's cabin is decorated with 
green and white curtains. The description which has been 
given me of her person inclines me to think that she may be 
the Duchesse de Berry." 

It is a little doubtful if Mile. Lebeschu had received instruc- 
tions from her mistress to impersonate her ; but, from the fact 
that she occupied the best cabin on the steamer, and was " the 
object of the greatest deference," it would appear that she had. 
Any way, she was quick to appreciate the assistance she would 
be rendering Madame by confirming her captors in their 
illusion, and played her part so admirably that they were soon 
quite convinced that she was the princess. 

A rumour that the Duchesse de Berry was on board the 
captured vessel soon spread through Toulon and created intense 
excitement. The authorities were accused of endeavouring to 
keep the presence of the princess a secret, in order to allow her 
to escape ; and a number of the National Guards announced 
their intention of boarding the Carlo Alberto and making her 
their prisoner. In great alarm, the maritime prefect ordered 
the Sphinx to proceed with her prize to Ajaccio, where the 
investigations could be conducted in a calmer atmosphere. 
There the mystery was at length solved, by the arrival of an 
officer who had been well acquainted with Madame, and who 
at once declared that the mysterious lady was not the princess. 

This intelligence greatly embarrassed the Government, 
which had just despatched a frigate to Ajaccio to convey the 
supposed Duchesse de Berry to her anxious relatives in 
Scotland ; and was, in consequence, being unmercifully ridiculed 
by all the Opposition journals. If the lady at Ajaccio was not 
the Duchesse de Berry, what, in wonder's name, had become of 
the princess ? 

" General Damremont," writes d'Argout, Minister of the 
Interior, to his " dear colleague " of the Marine, under date 
May 10, "announces as certain that it is not the Duchesse de 
Berry who was on board the Genoese steamer. It is urgent and 



312 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

indispensable to ascertain what has become of her. Can she 
have remained at Massa ? Can she have gone to Leghorn ? 
Can she have secretly disembarked in the environs of la Ciotat ? 
Can she be concealed on some other part of the [Spanish] 
frontier coast ? Finally, can she have decided to gain Rosas or 
Barcelona, in order to get to the Atlantic and expose the 
shores of our western departments to the same disturbances and 
enterprises with which the South has just been menaced ? " 

And he expresses his opinion that not only the coasts of 
Provence, Herault, and Catalonia, but the North of Spain and 
the Atlantic coast of France as far as la Vendee, should be 
patrolled by cruisers. 

" It is possible," he continues, " that the appearance of the 
steamer before Marseilles and Toulon was merely a demon- 
stration — a sort of ruse of war, and the real object of the 
authors of the conspiracy was to throw themselves on Brittany 
or la Vendee." * 

On the same day, Louis-Philippe, also much perturbed at 
the disappearance of the princess, wrote to the same Minister : 
" I believe it to be essential that you should establish cruisers 
and have the coast watched from Marseilles to Rosas, for I pre- 
sume that the Duchesse de Berry is in Catalonia." 

1 Archives de la Marine, published by Charles Nauroy, la Duchesse de Berry. 



CHAPTER XXVIi| 

Journey of the Duchesse de Berry to la Vendee — A titled coachman — The 
princess arrives at the Chateau of Plassac, near Saintes — Incidents of the journey — 
Review of the situation in la Vendee since the July Revolution — Decision of the la 
Fetelliere conference of September 1831 — Madame 's proclamation — She issues 
orders to her adherents to take up arms on May 24 — She leaves Plassac for the 
Chateau of Preuille, near Montaigu, where she assumes masculine attire — Narrow 
escape of the princess from drowning in crossing the Moine — -Arrival at Bellecour 
with Charette and Mesnard — Letter addressed to her by certain Vendeen chiefs 
entreating her to countermand her orders for May 24 — Refusal of the princess — She 
is compelled to fly from Bellecour — A night in a stable — The Chateau of Louvar- 
diere — Le Magasin — Madame receives further protests against the rising from the 
Vendeen leaders, but they fail to shake her resolution — Arrival of the advocate 
Berryer, who has induced the Marechal de Bourmont to issue a counter-order — And 
endeavours to persuade the princess to abandon the enterprise and leave France 
— Madajiie consents, but soon recalls her decision — Council of war at le Meslier — 
Issue of a new order fixing the rising for the night of June 3-4. 

WHILE the Government were seeking the Duchesse 
de Berry along the Mediterranean coast, the 
object of its quest was making her way to la 
Vendee. On May 3, she left the Chateau of Bonrecueil, in a 
calash, accompanied by Villeneuve-Bargemont, Mesnard, and 
the Comte de Lorge, twhom she had found there. Madame 
passed as the wife of Villeneuve-Bargemont, who was not 
unlike her, and for whom a passport had been procured ; 
Mesnard wore a peruke, which rendered him quite unrecognis- 
able ; while Lorge was disguised as the coachman, in which 
character he showed a coolness and an address which extricated 
the party from more than one embarrassment. They travelled 
day and night, only stopping for meals or to change horses ; 
passed through Tarascon, Nimes, Montpellier, Narbonne, Car- 
cassonne, Toulouse, Moissac, Agen, Bergerac, Sainte-Foy, 
Libourne, and Blaye, and arrived on the night of May 4 at 
the Chateau of Plassac, near Saintes, the seat of the Marquis 
Aymar de Dampierre, one of her most zealous partisans. 

The journey had not been free from alarms. Soon after 

313 



3 i4 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

leaving the Chateau of Bonrecueil, the travellers had aroused 
the suspicions of a gendarme, who had followed them for 
several hours and then suddenly disappeared ; and at an inn 
at Toulouse, where they had stopped to dine, a man had, 
greatly to Madame 's consternation, recognised her. He proved, 
however, to be a fervent Royalist, and, on learning of her desti- 
nation, told her that la Vendee was already full of troops, and 
begged of her to go no farther, offering her the shelter of his 
own house. But the princess replied that the troops would 
never fire upon her, and that, besides, she had burned her boats 
and would have difficulty in leaving France, even if she wished 
to do so. 

It may be as well to say a few words here about the con- 
dition of affairs in la Vendee since the July Revolution ; and by 
la Vendee must be understood not only the department of that 
name, but the adjoining departments of Loire-Inferieure and 
Maine-et-Loire, on the North, and of Deux-Sevres, on the East. 

The la Vendee of that period, as Blacas had warned the 
Duchesse de Berry, was certainly not the la Vendee which had 
struggled so heroically against the armies of the Convention. 
Between the nobles and the peasants a new class had sprung up 
in the owners of national property, and there were few landed 
proprietors who had not left some shreds of their inheritance in 
the hands of the Revolution. Numbers of Vendeens, too, had 
served as conscripts in the wars of the Empire, and if they had 
gone reluctantly, they had fought bravely enough, and no 
longer regarded the tricolour with the hatred with which it had 
inspired their fathers ; while the spread of education, and the 
improved means of communication between the West and Paris, 
had contributed to the weakening of the old prejudices and to 
the development of the new ideas. Nevertheless, the great 
mass of the rural population was still profoundly Legitimist and 
Catholic, and if Charles X., in 1830, had followed the advice of 
some of his adherents and appealed to the loyalty of the Ven- 
deens, they would have undoubtedly rallied in thousands to his 
standard. 

Discouraged by the old King's decision to bow before the 
storm, the Vendeens had been quiet enough during the first 
weeks of the July Monarchy, and the majority of the people 
would probably have accepted the new regime, if the Govern- 
ment of Louis-Philippe had shown the least disposition to 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 315 

conciliate them. But, so far from sparing their susceptibilities, it 
had the imprudence to embark upon a policy of petty persecu- 
tion. The monuments erected to Cathelineau and Charette 
were destroyed ; the arms of honour given by Louis XVIII. to 
the survivors of '93 were seized ; and a number of persons were 
arrested on suspicion of conspiring against the new monarchy. 

Such treatment naturally provoked the most intense resent- 
ment among this proud and high-spirited people. Great diffi- 
culty was experienced in collecting the taxes ; the young men 
refused to submit to the conscription, organised themselves into 
armed bands, and took to the woods, where they carried on a 
species of guerilla warfare with the troops sent in pursuit of 
them ; and the aires, whose indignation was intensified by the 
anti-religious tendencies of the Government, began to omit the 
prayers for Louis-Philippe from the Mass, and even to exhort 
their flocks to pray for Henri V. 

Thus, months before the Duchesse de Berry returned to 
France, a considerable part of la Vendee was already ripe for 
insurrection. Nevertheless, the majority of its leaders, less 
enthusiastic or more prudent than those of former times, were 
not prepared to recommend a general rising, unless they saw in 
it a reasonable prospect of success ; and at a meeting held by 
them at la Fetelliere, near Remouille, in the autumn of 1831, it 
had been decided, by a majority of votes, that this should not 
take place, except in the event of a successful movement in the 
South, the proclamation of a republic in Paris, or a foreign 
invasion. In May 1832, neither of these conditions had been 
fulfilled, and the first, as we have seen, was already out of the 
question. But Madame, with the incurable optimism of her cha- 
racter, had refused to abandon all hope of the South ; while 
advices from Paris warned her that a Republican insurrection 
was imminent. And, even in the absence of a diversion in either 
of these directions, she was confident that she had only to show 
herself in la Vendee for the decision of the la Fetelliere con- 
ference to be ignored, and the whole country to rally to her 
standard. 

The princess remained at the Chateau of Plassac until May 
16, to await the arrival of the Marechal de Bourmont, who had 
parted from her at Bonrecueil, and was journeying to la Vendee 
by way of the Bourbonnais, and conferring with the Legitimist 
leaders in the departments through which he passed. But, as 



316 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the days went by without any news of the marshal, she put 
herself into communication with Achille Guibourg, a young 
advocate of Nantes, whom she had appointed her civil commis- 
sioner in Brittany, and the Baron de Charette, and, apparently 
on their advice, decided to summon her partisans to take up 
arms forthwith. 1 Accordingly, on May 15, she issued the fol- 
lowing proclamation : — 

"Vendeens and Bretons, and all you inhabitants of the 
faithful provinces of the West, having disembarked in the 
South, I have not feared to traverse France, in the midst of 
dangers, to redeem a sacred promise, that of coming among my 
brave friends to share their perils and their labours. I am at 
length among this heroic people ! Open to the fortune of 
France. I place myself at your head, sure of conquering with 
such soldiers. Henri V. calls you ; his mother, Regent of 
France, consecrates herself to your happiness. Let us repeat 
our old and new cry : Vive le Roi ! Vive Henri V. / 

"Marie-Caroline, Regent of France" 

And in a letter which she sent to the Vendeen leaders, she 
informed them that it was her intention that they should take 
up arms on the 24th of that month. 

On the following day, Madame quitted Plassac, in a post- 
chaise, accompanied by the Marquis and Marquise de Dampierre, 
Mesnard and the Comte de Lorge, the latter, still disguised as 
a coachman, occupying the box-seat. Charette had written 
begging her to avoid the high-road to Nantes, as it was 
patrolled by detachments of gendarmes, who had orders to 
stop travellers, examine their passports, and search their car- 
riages, and to arrest any one whom they considered suspicious ; 
and her hosts had added their persuasions to his. But she 
insisted that the boldest course was the safest, and, by what 
seemed to her companions little short of a miracle, they were 
only once stopped, when the gendarmes, having examined the 
passport which described , the princess as the Comtesse de 
Villeneuve-Bargemont, expressed themselves satisfied. 

1 According to Charette (Journal militaire (Pun chef de POuest), the reason which 
determined her to this step was that the success of the movement depended upon 
surprise, and that, if it were delayed, her presence in the West might be discovered, 
and the Government have time to concentrate its troops, then scattered in small 
detachments. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 317 

At a little after nine o'clock on the morning of the 17th, 
they reached the Chateau of Preuille, near Montaigu, the resi- 
dence of Colonel de Nacquart, who was to command the 
Legitimist forces of the district. Here they found Guibourg 
and Charette, with whom Madame had a short conference. 
Then the Dampierres, Lorge, and Guibourg — who had taken 
the place of Mesnard — drove on to Nantes ; while Madame 
retired to change once more into masculine attire, and re- 
appeared, dressed in the black waistcoat with metal buttons, 
blue blouse, and wide breeches of a Vendeen peasant, her fair 
hair concealed beneath a brown wig and a woollen cap. 

In this disguise, the Regent of France, who had baptized 
herself Petit-Pierre, left the chateau, and, escorted by a gentle- 
man of the neighbourhood named Guignard, set off on foot for 
le Morlier, near Remouille, where she was to await Mesnard 
and Charette, who were so well known in that part of the 
country that they dared not travel by day. The count and the 
baron joined her when darkness fell, and, guided by a peasant 
named Le Normand, the three started for a lonely little house 
called Bellecour, about four leagues distant, which belonged to 
one of Charette's followers. Deeming it advisable to avoid the 
high-road, they struck off across country ; but it was a very 
dark night, and their progress was slow and laborious. After 
they had gone a short distance, they came to a little river, the 
Moine, which they had to cross by a causeway of stones. The 
guide, who was holding Madame's hand, slipped and fell into 
the water, dragging the princess with him ; and she would, in 
all probability, have been drowned, if Charette, who was a fine 
swimmer, had not promptly jumped in after her. 

The intrepid little lady did not seem in the least discon- 
certed by the mishap, and smilingly remarked, " To-day I have 
been through the water ; to-morrow, let us hope, it will be the 
fire." Notwithstanding the wetting she had received, she wished 
to continue her journey ; but her companions thought that it 
would be dangerous for her to go further in this condition, and 
they returned to le Morlier. Madame obtained a change of 
linen and dried her outer garments ; while the others, having 
decided that they must take their chance of being stopped 
upon the high-road, went in search of horses. They managed 
to procure two ; the princess mounted behind Le Normand ; 
Mesnard took the other horse, and Charette walked some 



318 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

distance ahead, to give them timely warning of the approach 
of any gendarmes. None appeared, however, and, on nearing 
Montbert, they dismounted, and, while Le Normand returned 
with the two horses to le Morlier, the others made their way 
in safety to Bellecour. 1 

Scarcely had Madame, worn out by the adventures of the 
night, retired to rest than she was awakened by the news that 
two gentlemen had arrived with a letter, which they insisted on 
her receiving immediately. This letter, which was signed by 
the Marquis de Coislin and several other Vendeen chiefs, ex- 
pressed great astonishment that the princess should have issued 
a call to arms without consulting them, or even awaiting the 
arrival of Bourmont ; pointed out that, in the absence of any 
diversion in the South, the prospect of a successful movement 
in the West was almost hopeless, and entreated her to counter- 
mand her orders for May 24. 

This appeal to reason, however, had no effect upon the 
determination of Madame, who had listened too long to the 
voice of enthusiasm, and she replied in an indignant letter, in 
which she reminded them that she had come to la Vendee at 
their urgent entreaty, and in full reliance on their assurances of 
devotion, and that, having braved all dangers in order to keep 
her promise to them, she had never doubted for a moment their 
willingness to execute their engagements to her. The orders 
for the 24th must be executed, and she counted on their loyalty 
to facilitate them. 

The princess and her companions had intended to remain 
at Bellecour until the morning of the 19th ; but that evening 
they received intelligence which necessitated their abrupt de- 
parture. A messenger whom Charette had sent on the previous 
day to Nantes, to purchase a riding-habit, some linen, and other 
articles for Madame, and to carry several important letters to 
their partisans in that town, had been arrested on his return 
journey ; and there could be no doubt that the police were now 
aware of the princess's presence in la Vendee, and perhaps even 
that she was at Bellecour. 

They accordingly lost not a moment in leaving the house, 
Madame still disguised as a peasant, and trudged bravely along 
through a night of wind and rain to a little farmhouse near 
G6neton, where, from fear of betraying her incognito, the 

1 Mesnard. 




CHARLES ATHANASE DE CHARETTE, BARON DE LA CONTRIE 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 319 

princess declined the bed which the farmer offered to surrender 
to her, and slept on a pile of straw in a vacant stall in the 
stable. In the course of the following day, one of her partisans 
arrived, bringing her a letter from the Marechal de Bourmont, 
written on the 17th. The marshal informed her that he would 
be at Nantes on the 19th, and the princess wrote ordering him 
to join her as soon as possible. 

When darkness fell, she and her companions resumed their 
journey, and made their way on foot to the Chateau of Lou- 
vardiere, belonging to Hyacinthe de la Roberie, a Royalist 
who had distinguished himself during the Vendeen rising of 
181 5. They slept that night at Louvardiere, and next day 
proceeded to le Magasin, a chateau situated near Saint-Etienne- 
Corcoue, Madame mounted on the crupper of La Roberie's 
horse. Here they remained until dusk, when they set forth 
once more, and, towards midnight, reached a little house called 
le Meslier, about a league from L£ge, in the arrondissement of 
Nantes, belonging to a M. de la Roche Saint-Andre. 

This little house, hidden amid the woods and never inhabited 
by its owner, except for a few days each year at the time of the 
vintage, had hitherto escaped the notice of the authorities and 
the police, who were keeping a very close watch on most of the 
country-houses in the neighbourhood of Nantes ; and it had 
therefore been chosen by Charette as a rendezvous for the 
Vendeen leaders, and as a place where Madame might remain 
in comparative safety until the moment for action arrived. 

On her arrival, the princess found several of the leaders 
awaiting her. All hastened to assure her of their personal 
devotion, but all expressed their conviction that the rising was 
foredoomed to complete failure. In the present circumstances, 
they feared that it would be useless to attempt anything. 

" What, gentlemen ! " cried the indignant princess. " I take 
no account of any obstacle ; I come among you, and you can 
do nothing for me ? " " Madame," rejoined one of them, " the 
time has come to speak the truth. We have received, in your 
name, repeated assurances that la Vendue would never be called 
upon to rise in arms, except in the event of your Royal High- 
ness obtaining certain successes in the South, of a republic 
being installed in the capital, or of a foreign invasion menacing 
our frontiers. The movement is reduced to us Vend£ens ; there 
is not one of us who can effect anything now that Marseilles 



320 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

has failed, and that we see your Royal Highness compelled to 
conceal herself from her pursuers ; we cannot deceive our 
peasants. The inhabitants of this country are discouraged and 
disconcerted ; they believe you to be a prisoner, all the journals 
having announced it. In a word, they will not rise, we are 
convinced." 

The others declared themselves of the same opinion as the 
speaker, and entreated Madame to countermand her orders for 
the 24th. 

The princess replied that it was now too late to do so. The 
counter-order could not possibly reach the more distant 
divisions in time to prevent them taking up arms, and, 
deprived of the support upon which they had counted, they 
would be destroyed. 

On the morrow, these gentlemen and several others, all of 
whom were attached to the corps which Charette was to com- 
mand, drew up and sent to the princess and the baron a protest 
embodying the arguments which had been used on the previous 
day. Charette despatched one of his friends to remonstrate 
with them, but, though one or two were perfectly willing to risk 
their own lives, they refused to expose those of their peasants in 
a hopeless struggle. 

Towards midnight, a man in the dress of a Vend6en peasant 
and covered with mud presented himself at le Meslier and 
demanded to see the Duchesse de Berry. The stranger was 
none other than the celebrated advocate Berryer, who had been 
despatched by the Royalist committee in Paris to persuade the 
princess to abandon what her friends in the capital now con- 
sidered a hopeless enterprise. He had reached Nantes that 
morning, had had an interview with Bourmont, and had induced 
the marshal to issue, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of 
the Vend^en forces, a counter-order, directing the various 
generals to " suspend the execution of the orders which they 
had received, and to take no overt action until further instruc- 
tions." He had then disguised himself, and, guided by friendly 
peasants, set out for le Meslier. On his way, he had been 
obliged to wade through a marsh, which accounted for his 
disreputable appearance. 

Berryer found the princess lying on a truckle-bed, wrapped 
in a Scotch shawl and with a peasant's cap on her head. On a 
table by her side lay her wig and four pistols. He informed 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 321 

her of the counter-order which Bourmont had issued, and read 
to her a letter which the Paris committee had entrusted to him. 
This epistle, which had been drawn up by Chateaubriand, 
declared that Madame had been completely deceived if she had 
been led to expect a Royalist movement in the capital, as, after 
recent events, they would not be able to find twelve hundred 
men there to take up arms on her behalf; that a rising in 
la Vendee would have no other result than to bring ruin and 
misery upon the unfortunate peasants and to consolidate the 
present Government by an easy triumph ; and that it, in conse- 
quence, now became her duty to order the Vendeen leaders to 
remain quiet and to hasten her departure from France. Thus, 
she would have " the twofold glory of accomplishing a cour- 
ageous action, and of preventing the effusion of the blood of 
Frenchmen." 

These pacific — or, as Madame considered them, pusillanimous 
— counsels were, as may be imagined, not at all to the liking of 
the bellicose princess, and she and Berryer argued the matter 
until four o'clock in the morning. At length, she yielded, or 
perhaps only pretended to yield, and directed him to proceed 
to le Magasin, where she would join him in the course of the 
day. From there she would make her way to Nantes, and 
so to the coast of Brittany, where she hoped to be able to find 
a ship. 

The great advocate departed, convinced that he had won 
his case, and repaired to the rendezvous, accompanied by 
Charette, who joined him on the way. He had been much 
impressed by the courage and energy shown by Madame, and 
spoke of her in terms of the warmest admiration. " There is in 
that princess's heart and head," said he, "the stuff to make 
twenty kings." 1 

Berryer and Charette waited all day for Madame, but she 
did not appear. At length, just as they had decided that she 
must have fallen into the hands of the enemy, the peasant who 
was to have acted as her guide arrived and handed the baron a 
letter, which ran as follows : — 

" My dear Charette, 

" I am remaining among you ; I am writing to 
inform Berryer of my determination. The enclosed letter is 

1 Cretineau-Joly, Hisioire de la Vendee militaire. 
Y 



322 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

for the marshal. I am sending him orders to join me imme- 
diately. 

" I am remaining, because my presence has compromised a 
great number of my faithful servants. It would be cowardly 
of me to abandon them. Besides, I hope that, despite the 
unfortunate counter-order, God will give us the victory. 

" Adieu, my dear friend, do not send in your resignation, 
since Petit-Pierre does not send in hers ! " * 

The cause of this sudden change in Madame" s resolutions 
was a letter which she had received a few hours after Berryer's 
departure. It had been despatched from Toulon, under cover to 
one of her partisans at Nantes, and announced that the South 
was rising in insurrection. The news was absolutely without 
foundation, and the writer, whose identity was never estab- 
lished, was no doubt some fanatical Legitimist, who desired to 
see a rising at any cost ; but before the truth was discovered, the 
princess was irrevocably committed to the enterprise which she 
had seemed on the point of abandoning. 

On the night of May 24-25, Charette's aide-de-camp, the 
Comte Henri de Puyseux, who had conducted Berryer back to 
Nantes, returned to le Meslier, bringing with him the Marechal 
de Bourmont. A council of war was at once summoned, and 
a very animated discussion followed. Most of those present 
were strongly opposed to a rising, declining to place any faith 
in the Toulon letter, and pointing out that a proclamation which 
Madame had issued three days before to the troops stationed in 
la Vendee, calling on them to rally to her side, appeared to have 
been entirely without effect. 

" Monsieur le Marechal," said one to Bourmont, " if you were 
sure of two regiments, we should not hesitate." " Two regiments ! " 
replied the marshal. " If I had two battalions, I should not 
consult you." Then Madame and the enthusiasts declared that 
intelligence had been received from Paris that the long-expected 
Republican insurrection would certainly break out in the first 
days of June ; that, if they took up arms simultaneously, the 
Government would be between two fires, and that, in any case, 
honour required them to rise, if only to protect those who had 
not received the counter-order in time and were by now hope- 
lessly compromised. " Gentlemen," cried the gallant Puyseux, 

1 Imbert de Saint-Amand, la Duchesse de Berry et la Vendie. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 323 

" we have only two roads ; one leads probably to death, the 
other leads certainly to dishonour. The choice cannot be 
doubtful." 

Finally, the war-party carried the day ; the rising was 
fixed for the night of June 3-4, and Madame signed the 
following order : — 

" Having formed the resolution not to quit the provinces 
of the West, and to entrust myself to their loyalty so long 
proved, I count on you, Monsieur, to take all the necessary 
measures for the rising in arms, which will take place on the 
night of the 3rd to 4th of June. 1 I summon to me all men of 
courage. God will aid us to save our country. No danger, no 
fatigue, will discourage me. You will see me appear at the first 
gathering. 

" Marie-Caroline, Regent of France " 2 

1 This moment had been selected, on the advice of Bourmont, because June 3 was 
a Sunday, and it would be easy for the captains in the different parishes, without 
exciting any suspicion, to communicate the order for the rising to the peasants, when 
they assembled, as was their custom, at the church-doors, after Mass. 

2 Cretineau-Joly. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Disastrous effects of the counter-order issued by Bourmont — Seizure of the con- 
spirators' plan of campaign and other important papers at the Chateau of la Chasliere 
— Madame leaves le Meslier, and makes her way to la Mouchetiere — The news that 
gendarmes are approaching obliges her to escape, in the middle of the night, across 
the fields to Moulin-Etienne — Anguish of Madame on learning of the disasters that 
have befallen her cause — She is escorted by a party of Vendeen gentlemen to la 
Brosse, near Montbert — Berryer writes to the princess imploring her to allow him to 
conduct her to Savoy ; but she repulses with indignation all idea of flight — The 
Vendeens rise in arms in the night of June 3-4, but the insurrection is easily sup- 
pressed — Bravery of Charette's corps — Barbarities committed by Louis-Philippe's 
troops on the non-combatants — Butchery at la Mouchetiere — The combat of le Chene 
— Heroic defence of the Chateau of la Penissiere — Visit of a party of soldiers to la 
Brosse — Mada?ne is compelled to hide for six hours in a ditch — She proceeds to Pont 
Saint-Martin, and decides to take refuge at Nantes — The princess and Mile. Eulalie 
de Kersabiec set out for Nantes, disguised as peasant-women — An adventurous journey 
— Madame reads a proclamation offering a large reward for information which may 
lead to her arres t — She arrives safely at the Kersabiecs' house at Nantes. 

IT is very doubtful whether, in any case, the movement in 
la Vendee would have had even a remote chance of 
ultimate success. At the same time, the Government and 
the military authorities were so far from suspecting that they 
were on the very eve of an insurrection that they had made few 
preparations for such a contingency. If, therefore, the Legiti- 
mists in the different departments had risen en masse on the 
date originally fixed, and made a simultaneous attack on the 
weak detachments scattered up and down the country, there is 
every probability that most of these would have been either 
captured or destroyed, and that, aided by the prestige of victory, 
Madame and her adherents would have succeeded in establishing 
themselves so firmly in certain parts of the West, that it would 
have necessitated a regular campaign to dislodge them. 

However that may be, the unfortunate counter-order which 
Bourmont had issued ruined everything. Not only did it arouse 
uncertainty, distrust, and confusion in every direction, but it did 
not even reach the more remote districts in time. In conse- 
quence, those companies which had not received it rose in arms, 

324 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 325 

and, being, of course, left unsupported by those which had, were 
destroyed or dispersed. Several of the leaders were wounded 
or taken prisoners, and the gallant Jacques Cathelineau, son of 
the celebrated chief of '93, was shot in cold blood by an officer 
of the 29th Regiment to whom he had surrendered, and thus 
perished, like his father, a martyr of the Royalist cause. To 
crown all, information having reached General Dermoncourt, 
who commanded the troops at Nantes, that the Duchesse de 
Berry was concealed in the Chateau of la Chasliere, on the banks 
of the Erdre (Loire-Inferieure), he proceeded thither, and 
searched the house from cellar to attic. The princess was, of 
course, not forthcoming ; nevertheless, the general was amply 
rewarded for his trouble, since he discovered, hidden in some 
empty wine-bottles, the plan of campaign, a number of letters 
signed by the leaders of the movement, and the key to their 
signatures. 

Madame remained at le Meslier until the night of May 31- 
June 1, when she set out for the La Roberies' chateau at 
Louvardiere, four leagues distant, partly because, although the 
seizure of the papers at la Chasliere was not yet known, she 
considered it advisable to change her asylum, and partly because 
she wished to be near the centre of operations. Notwithstand- 
ing the reverses for which the fatal counter-order had been 
responsible, and the fact that the military authorities must now 
be fully prepared for any emergency, she had refused to abandon 
hope, and believed that some brilliant success might atone 
for all. 

Accompanied by Mile. Eulalie de Kersabiec, a young Breton 
lady, who was henceforth to share her sufferings and dangers, 
Mesnard, a miller named Sorin, a servant from le Meslier, and 
a peasant, who acted as guide, Madame arrived, shortly before 
daybreak, at a mill not far from Louvardiere, where, if the coast 
were clear, La Roberie and his son had arranged to meet her 
and conduct her to the chateau. The two gentlemen did not 
arrive, however ; through some misunderstanding, they had been 
expecting the princess for two days, and, since she did not put 
in an appearance, they had left for a farm on a distant part of 
their estate, called la Mouchetiere. As the day was close at 
hand, and it would have been dangerous to remain any longer 
in a neighbourhood in which several detachments of Louis- 
Philippe's troops were known to be encamped, the party decided 



326 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

to make for le Magasin. Here Madame remained until evening, 
and then proceeded to la Mouchetiere. 

She found the household in great alarm. The gendarmerie 
had attempted to arrest one of their friends as he was leaving 
the farm that afternoon, and they feared that a domiciliary visit 
was imminent. Their apprehensions were well founded, for, in 
the middle of the night, Madame was awakened by the news 
that gendarmes were approaching the house. The La Roberies 
proposed to conceal the princess in a hole which had been 
made beneath the kitchen-floor ; but this hiding-place wore 
so uninviting an appearance that she decided that flight would 
be infinitely preferable. Accompanied by her host and Mesnard, 
she made her way across the fields to le Moulin-Etienne, a 
house some miles distant, which belonged to a M. de la Haye, 
one of her most faithful partisans. Here she was visited by 
Henri de Puyseux and other leaders of the movement, and 
learned, to her anguish, that Cathelineau, who would have been 
a host in himself, was dead ; that several Vendeen nobles had 
announced their intention of taking no part in the rising ; that 
all the plans of the enterprise had fallen into the hands of the 
enemy, and that the troops of Louis-Philippe were rapidly 
concentrating. 

Now, at last, the fortitude of the heroic little woman gave 
way, and she sobbed bitterly. " Ah ! " she exclaimed, " it is the 
last blow to all my hopes. O my son ! thou wilt never know 
the anguish and the tears of thy mother ! " Gladly would she 
have despatched a new counter-order, but it was now, of course, 
too late ; in less than twenty-four hours the peasants in every 
parish throughout the West would have received their instruc- 
tions to take up arms. 

That evening she left Moulin-Etienne, and was conducted 
by a party of Vendeen gentlemen to la Brosse, a lonely house 
not far from Montbert, belonging to one of her partisans at 
Nantes, where she was to await the rising of the following night. 
Determined not to allow her escort to suspect her despondency, 
she laughed and jested gaily. " Confess, gentlemen," said she, 
glancing at the men muffled in their long cloaks and armed to 
the teeth who surrounded her, " confess that we resemble a 
band of robbers rather than honest people." 1 

Next morning, Madame received a letter from Berryer, who 

1 Charett'e, Journal militaire d'un chef de V Quest. 




^ 



V 



pierre antoine berryer 

FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY DELPECH 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 327 

was still at Nantes, in which he informed her that orders had 
come from Paris for her arrest, and implored her to allow him 
to conduct her to Savoy, for which he had obtained a passport 
for himself and a lady. " There is not a moment to lose," he 
wrote. "A domiciliary visit has been paid my house in Paris. 
Nothing suspicious was discovered, but the procureur du roi here 
has given orders for my arrest, if I do not leave this very day. 
I have requested permission to go, by way of Angouleme, into 
Auvergne, and thence to Savoy. I shall not start until Tuesday 
morning, between ten and eleven o'clock. My papers are in 
order, and the passport of which I am the bearer will permit 
of my taking Madame with me. If the persons with Madame 
wish to save her, they may take advantage of to-morrow night 
to conduct her, in disguise, to la Rochelle. 

" We had news of Madame 's family on May 25 ; all are well, 
but cruelly anxious. In the name of that august family, in the 
name of France, in the name of the young Henri V., in the 
name of all the Royalists, I implore Madame to retire. The 
way I have indicated is good, and, though there is barely time, 
there is sufficient." 1 

This letter was quite without effect upon the princess, who 
repulsed with indignation all idea of flight. She was deter- 
mined, she declared, to remain with her faithful Vendeens, and, 
if necessary, to die with them. 

We shall not attempt more than a very brief account of that 
most hopeless of insurrections which began on the night of 
June 3-4, 1832. The Vendeens still had courage on their side, 
but they no longer had numbers, for, after the reverses which 
had followed the counter-order and the discovery of their plans 
by the enemy, even the most ignorant peasant must have recog- 
nised the folly of the undertaking, and the mass of the people 
did not move. Many of the nobles and gentry, mingling con- 
sideration for their tenants with their own devotion to the 
Bourbon cause, took up arms themselves, but advised the 
peasants who would have followed them to remain quiet ; and 
thus in some districts the insurgents were drawn almost entirely 
from the upper classes. 

Of the three corps of which the Vendeen army was composed, 
those of Anjou and Brittany were so weak that they were quite 

1 Archives Nationales, published by Thirria. 



328 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

unable to sustain the unequal struggle, and were speedily routed 
and dispersed. The third, commanded by Charette, which 
operated in the department of la Vendee and the southern 
portion of Loire-Inferieure, and numbered in its ranks many 
veterans of the old wars, fought with all the heroism of despair, 
and, if it effected nothing else, covered itself with glory. 

The men under Charette's immediate command were par- 
ticularly exasperated against the soldiers of Louis-Philippe, 
who conducted themselves towards the non-combatants with 
a ferocity worthy of the worst traditions of the Vendeen wars. 
A shocking example of this occurred in the early morning of 
June 6. 

A company of the 17th Regiment visited la Mouchetiere, 
where it was reported that the Duchesse de Berry had taken 
refuge. The inmates fled at the approach of the soldiers, where- 
upon the latter fired, killing at the first volley the farmer, his 
wife, his son, and one of their servants. Celine de la Roberie, 
a charming young girl of sixteen, was pursued by a sergeant, 
who deliberately shot her through the back, killing her on the 
spot, after which his comrades mutilated the body with their 
bayonets. 

On learning of the terrible fate of his daughter, M. de la 
Roberie, who commanded a division under Charette, rushed 
like one distracted to his general's quarters to demand vengeance 
on the murderers, and all the peasants clamoured to be led 
against the enemy. Charette, against his better judgment, for 
he had sustained a reverse near Aigrefeuille on the 4th, and 
had only some six hundred men with him, consented and 
attacked the troops posted at the little village of le Chene. 
After a furious hand-to-hand struggle, the Vendeens drove the 
enemy out of the village and pursued him for some distance ; 
but reinforcements came up, and they were eventually com- 
pelled to retire, with considerable loss. Among the wounded 
was Auguste de Bonrecueil, who expired the following day. 

About the same time as this engagement was taking place, 
the Chateau of la Penissiere-de-la-Cour, near Clisson (Vendee), 
was the scene of another stubborn conflict. A party of forty- 
twO Vendeens, mostly gentlemen of the neighbourhood, which 
had halted there on its way to Cugan, was besieged by the 
29th Regiment. For several hours they held the enemy at bay, 
two attempts to storm the place being repulsed with heavy loss. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 329 

At length, the soldiers succeeded in setting fire to the chateau, 
and the flames spread so rapidly that it seemed as though its 
garrison would have no choice between surrender and a terrible 
death. However, eight of the Vendeens volunteered to hold 
the burning building, while their comrades effected their escape 
by a door leading to the garden. This was accomplished with 
little loss ; and, finally, just before the roof fell in with a terrible 
crash, the eight heroes succeeded in making their way into a 
cellar, where they remained until night, unmolested by the 
besiegers, who believed that they had perished in the flames. 

But such heroic deeds were, of course, quite unavailing ; 
and, after the action at le Chene, Charette decided to disband 
the small force that remained to him, and, on June 7, went to 
la Brosse, to communicate his decision to the Duchesse de 
Berry. Madame, it should be mentioned, had been very anxious 
to follow the Vendeens on the previous day, but Charette had 
refused to allow her to expose herself, and the engagement had 
taken place without her being informed of it. 

Scarcely had Charette reached la Brosse, where he found 
the princess, Eulalie de Kersabiec, Mesnard, Brissac, La Ro- 
berie, the Comte de la Chesnaverie, and a wounded Vendeen 
gentleman, Bruneau de la Souchais, than a breathless peasant 
hurried up with the news that a detachment of soldiers was 
approaching. They all, including the wounded man, at once 
quitted the house and concealed themselves in a ditch, half- 
filled with water, in a field at the bottom of the garden, flanked, 
on one side, by a tall hedge, and, on the other, by thick bushes, 
and covered with long grass. Here they remained for six 
hours, when the soldiers, having searched the house and the 
neighbourhood, and, on one occasion, approached to within a 
few paces of their hiding-place, finally retired. Madame and 
her friends did not, however, venture to return to la Brosse ; 
and, since it would have been dangerous for them to keep 
together, they decided to separate ; and the princess, accom- 
panied only by Eulalie de Kersabiec, made her way to a house 
near the village of Pont-Saint-Martin. 

But for Madame to remain in the Bocage was impossible, 
for the soldiers were searching for her everywhere, and any 
moment might bring them upon her. She therefore decided 
upon a plan of action which, however audacious it may appear, 
was really the wisest she could have adopted : to seek an 



330 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

asylum in the very midst of her enemies — in Nantes itself. 
Once there, she told herself, she would be in comparative 
security, for a town which was swarming with police and 
soldiers, and the population of which was in great part hostile 
to her cause, was the very last place where the Government 
would think of seeking her. 

She consulted with Mile, de Kersabiec as to the best way of 
entering Nantes, and decided to go thither on the following 
Saturday (June 9), disguised as a peasant-woman. Saturday 
was the market-day at Nantes, and, amid the crowd of peasant- 
women who would be entering the town at the same time, there 
would be very little chance of her being recognised. Accord- 
ingly, at dawn on the day in question, she set off, accompanied 
by Eulalie de Kersabiec, similarly disguised, and two genuine 
peasants, Mariette Dore and Francoise Pouvreau. 

In order that her disguise might be as complete as possible, 
Madame had discarded her boots for the clumsy shoes and 
coarse worsted stockings worn by the women of the country ; 
but when she had been walking for about an hour — it was five 
leagues to Nantes — her feet became so sore that she could go 
no farther. She therefore seated herself upon a bank, took off 
her shoes and stockings, thrust them into the huge pockets of 
her dress, and continued her journey barefoot. But, before she 
had gone very far, the thought occurred to her that her feet, 
and that part of her leg which her short skirt revealed, were 
much too white for those of a peasant, and might very likely 
betray her. The application of a few handfuls of earth from 
an adjoining field served to remedy this defect, and just outside 
Nantes she resumed her shoes and stockings. 

Madame passed safely through the custom-house, though 
not without occasioning her companions a moment of alarm. 
In pushing forward her basket to be examined, she revealed 
a slender white arm, which was certainly not in keeping with 
the character which she had assumed. Fortunately, the dotianier 
was too busy to remark upon it. 

The two peasants now took leave of the ladies, who con- 
tinued their way alone. They had seated themselves for a 
moment on the Pont de la Madeleine, opposite the Boufifai, 
when Madame felt a hand upon her shoulder. She started up, 
in great consternation, to find herself confronted by an old 
country-woman, who, having deposited a big basket full of 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 331 

apples on the ground, was vainly endeavouring to replace it 
on her head. " My good girls," said she, " help me to replace 
my basket, and I will give each of you an apple for your 
trouble." 

Madame immediately seized one handle of the basket, made 
a sign to her companion to take the other, and, not without 
difficulty, for it was exceedingly heavy, they succeeded in 
poising it on its owner's head. The old woman thanked them, 
and was moving away, when the princess caught her arm, and 
exclaimed : " Why, mother, you are forgetting our apples ! " 
The apples were duly handed over, and Madame was munching 
hers with an appetite sharpened by her long walk, when her 
eyes fell upon a placard on the opposite wall, headed by these 
three words in large letters : 

"STATE OF SIEGE" 

She crossed the road to read it, and found that it was a 
royal Ordinance proclaiming martial law throughout the four 
departments of la Vendee, Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sevres, and 
Loire-Inferieure, and offering a large reward for any information 
which might lead to the apprehension of the Duchesse de Berry, 
of whom the following description was appended : 

"Duchesse de Berry, 35 years; height, 5 feet 2 inches; 
rather slender figure ; blonde hair and eyebrows ; clear blue 
eyes, with a slight squint ; ordinary nose ; medium-sized 
mouth ; round chin ; round face ; pale complexion." 

Mile, de Kersabiec entreated her not to linger thus, for a 
number of people were already gathered round the placard ; 
but she coolly replied that the document concerned her too 
nearly for her not to make herself acquainted with its contents. 
Just as she had finished reading it and was turning away, a 
detachment of infantry came marching by, and she recognised 
in the officer who commanded it one who had formerly held a 
commission in the Royal Guard, and whom she had often seen 
on duty at the Tuileries. The recognition seems to have 
been mutual, for the officer looked at the princess very hard 
indeed. However, he made no sign, and passed on with his 
men ; x while Madame and her companion did likewise, and, 

1 Madame afterwards declared that she felt sure that this officer had recognised 



332 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

a few minutes later, arrived safely at the Kersabiecs' house, in 
the Place Saint-Pierre, where they found Eulalie's elder sister, 
Stylite de Kersabiec, and Charette anxiously awaiting them, 
and where they were soon afterwards joined by Mesnard and 
Brissac, who had made their way into the town disguised as 
farmers. 

her, but that he was too chivalrous to betray a woman, adding that, if ever the 
Bourbons were restored, "he should see that Caroline of France had not forgotten 
the debts of Caroline of la Vendee." 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

The Duchesse de Berry leaves the Kersabiecs', and takes refuge at the house of the 
Miles, du Guigny in the Rue Haute-du-Chateau — Her apartments are two attics, one 
of which contains a mysterious hiding-place constructed during the Terror — Pre- 
cautions adopted to guard against surprise — Charette urges the princess to allow him 
to conduct her from France, but she refuses — Explanation of her resolve to remain 
in France — Her ceaseless correspondence with the Legitimist leaders in France and 
her agents at foreign Courts — Futile efforts of the Government to ascertain her 
whereabouts — Thiers becomes Minister of the Interior, and determines to make the 
capture of Madame his personal affair — He receives an unsigned letter offering to 
impart to him important information in regard to an affair of State — Meeting between 
the Minister and the writer in the Champs-Elysees — Hyacinthe Simon Deutz — His 
strange career — He is recommended to Madame by Pope Gregory XVI., and is sent 
by her on a mission to Portugal — His determination to betray his employer — A 
shameful compact — Deutz at Nantes— His first interview with Madame leads to no 
result — He solicits a second audience, which, contrary to the advice of her friends, 
the princess accords — Soldiers are perceived approaching the house, and Madame, 
Mesnard, Guibourg, and Stylite de Kersabiec take refuge in the hiding-place — A 
terrible night — The princess and her friends are obliged to surrender to avoid being 
burned alive — They are conducted to the Chateau of Nantes. 

THE Duchesse de Berry only remained with the 
Kersabiecs three days, as their Royalist sympathies 
were too well known for their house to be free from 
the danger of a domiciliary visit, and she therefore found 
another asylum with two maiden ladies, Marie Louise and 
Pauline du Guigny, members of an old Breton family, who, 
while equally devoted to her cause, had never done anything to 
arouse the suspicion of the authorities, and were respected by 
all parties for their piety and good works. Their house, which 
was to become so celebrated, was situated in the Rue Haute-du- 
Chateau (No. 3), in the highest part of the town. It was a 
modest three-storied dwelling, the rooms on the third floor 
being merely attics. Two of these attics were prepared for 
Madame, and the reason for their selection was as follows : — 

Behind the open fire-place of the inner room, which was 
placed in an angle of the apartment, was a mysterious hiding- 
place, access to which was obtained by pressing a spring in the 

333 



334 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

iron plate which formed the back of the chimney-place. This 
hiding-place, which had been constructed during the Terror, 
and had doubtless on several occasions given shelter to pro- 
scribed Royalists in the days when the infamous Carrier was 
deluging Nantes with blood, was very small ; "about 18 inches 
wide at one of the extremities, and 8 to 10 inches at the other, 
and from 3 feet to 3 feet 6 inches long." The height di- 
minished also towards the narrower extremity, in such a way 
as scarcely to permit a man to stand upright, even by passing 
his head between the rafters." * However, at a pinch, it could 
give shelter to four persons. 

Mesnard and Stylite de Kersabiec had accompanied Madame 
to the Rue Haute-du- Chateau, and the latter served her as 
femme de chambre. For breakfast and dinner, the princess 
descended to the second floor, and during meals one of the two 
maidservants kept by the Miles, du Guigny, both of whom 
were devoted to their mistresses and to their royal guest, was 
always on guard below. If she caught sight of any soldiers or 
gendarmes approaching the house, she immediately rang a bell 
which communicated with the second story, and the princess 
returned in all haste to her attic. 

From the laborious and active life which Madame had led 
since her return to France she passed on a sudden to one of 
the most complete inactivity. After the hardships and perils 
through which she had passed, the rest and comparative 
security which she now enjoyed were at first welcome enough, 
but, before long, the monotony of her existence, and, above all, 
the impossibility of obtaining any outdoor exercise, became 
almost unendurable, and there must have been moments when 
she was tempted to wish that she was still a fugitive in the 
Bocage. 

Charette, who several times visited the house in disguise, 
urged her to allow him to arrange for her escape by sea, 
representing that she could do no good by remaining in France, 
and that her return to Italy or Scotland would be a powerful 
inducement to the Government to deal leniently with those of 
her adherents who had fallen into its hands. But nothing 
would induce the princess to budge. Notwithstanding the total 
failure of the Royalist rising in the West, and the suppression 

1 Achille Guibourg, Relation fidele et dUaillie de V arrestation de S.A.R. Madame, 
Duchesse de Berry (Nantes, 1832). 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 335 

of the infinitely more formidable Republican insurrection in the 
capital, which had broken out almost simultaneously, she was 
convinced that the July Monarchy was doomed to an early 
demise, and that, in consequence, her presence in France was of 
the most vital importance to the success of the Legitimist cause. 

It was on the Belgian imbroglio that Madame based her 
hopes. The Treaty of Venice had united Holland and Belgium 
into a single kingdom under William I., who had previously 
been Stadtholder of Holland. But the differences which had 
divided the Netherlands into two halves in the sixteenth 
century had by no means been removed by the lapse of three 
hundred years, and the Belgians had always bitterly resented 
what they, with reason, regarded as an altogether one-sided 
arrangement. In August 1830, encouraged by the example of 
the July Revolution in France, they rose against the Dutch, 
expelled them from all the fortresses with the exception of 
Antwerp, Maestricht, and the citadel of Ghent, and proclaimed 
the independence of their country. William I. appealed for aid 
to the five Powers, but the sympathies of England and France 
were with the Belgians, while the members of the Holy 
Alliance were too much engaged elsewhere to favour coercive 
measures. A conference was, therefore, held in London, which, 
after imposing an armistice on the belligerents, proceeded to 
issue two protocols, the first of which was repudiated by the 
Belgians, and the second, which acknowledged Leopold of 
Saxe-Coburg, the widower of the English Princess Charlotte, 
as King of the Belgians, by William I. In August 1831, the 
latter suddenly broke the armistice, invaded Belgium, and was 
carrying all before him, when an English fleet and a French 
army intervened and compelled the Dutch to retire and 
conclude an armistice. The London conference then drew up 
a third protocol, the terms of which were more favourable to 
William I. Nevertheless, that monarch obstinately refused to 
give way, and it was obvious that nothing but force would 
induce him to do so. 

Now, the Duchesse de Berry had always held that the 
recognition of Louis-Philippe by the Eastern Powers had been 
merely a precautionary measure, forced upon them by the 
necessity of having their hands free to deal with the insurrec- 
tionary movements in Poland and Italy ; and she believed that, 
now that these had been suppressed, they would seize the 



336 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

pretext of a renewed French intervention in the Belgian im- 
broglio to invade France. She did not desire, as we have shown, 
to see France invaded, but she did desire to see a threat of 
invasion, which would cause the French Government to mass 
the bulk of its troops upon the frontier, and thus afford the 
Legitimists in France an opportunity for a successful rising, 
of which, she hoped, they would not be slow to avail themselves. 
Even if the Eastern Powers refused to move, she believed that 
Sardinia and Spain might be induced to make armed demon- 
strations on the side of the Alps and the Pyrenees ; and that 
these, in conjunction with a fresh invasion of Belgium by the 
Dutch, would produce the same effect. 1 

The princess had agents at nearly every Court in Europe ; 
at St. Petersburg, at Vienna, at Madrid, at Lisbon, at Turin, 
and, in particular, at The Hague, where the Count Lucchesi- 
Palli, now Neapolitan Minister, was exceptionally well placed 
to aid her. With these agents, and with the Royalist leaders 
in different parts of France, she maintained a ceaseless 
correspondence, and during her residence at Nantes she is said 
to have despatched over nine hundred letters, nearly all written 
with her own hand. She wrote in white ink and in cipher, 
which necessitated so great a strain to her eyes that sometimes 
they " seemed ready to burst from their sockets." 2 

Meanwhile, the French Government was making every 
effort to discover the whereabouts of the elusive princess, but 
all to no purpose. The police had, it is true, intercepted 
and deciphered several despatches between Madame and her 
partisans, from which they learned that at some time or other she 
had been at Nantes, but without ascertaining what house had 
served her as a refuge, or whether she was still in hiding there. 

At the beginning of October, a new Ministry came into 
office, with Thiers as Minister of the Interior. The cause of 
Legitimacy had no more determined enemy than this awk- 
ward, near-sighted little man, who, by sheer intellect and energy, 
was to rise to the highest position in the State. It was he 
who had organised the protest of the journalists against the 
Ordinances which had excited the populace to rise in arms; 
it was he who had been the first to offer the Crown to Louis- 
Philippe, and it was he who had overcome the last scruples of 
that prince and persuaded him to accept it. Thiers decided 

' Thirria. 2 General Dermoncourt, la Vendk et Madame. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 337 

that it was matter of urgent importance that the Duchesse de 
Berry should be laid by the heels without delay. So long as 
she remained at large, the Government could not feel secure 
against another Legitimist rising, and, besides, her arrest and 
imprisonment were necessary to placate the Republican party, 
who had accused the late Ministers of knowing where Madame 
was and of being unwilling to have her arrested. 

Notwithstanding the name of his portfolio, Thiers was less 
Minister of the Interior than Minister of Police, for the adminis- 
trative duties had been transferred from his department to that 
of Commerce and Public Works. He was therefore able to 
devote himself exclusively to the supervision of the police ; and 
he determined to make this question his personal affair, to 
take none of his colleagues into his confidence, and to employ 
every possible means to discover the retreat of the princess. 

A few days after Thiers had assumed his new duties, he 
received an unsigned letter, the writer of which offered to impart 
to him some important information in regard to an affair of 
State, if the Minister would come, alone, that night to a certain 
spot in the Champs-Elysees. Thiers kept the appointment, but 
since personal courage was not his strong point — he had kept 
carefully out of the way all through the fighting on the three 
days of July — and he feared an ambush, he came accompanied 
by several agents. No one addressed him, and, after waiting 
some time, he returned home. 

Next morning, however, he received a second letter from the 
same person. It was as follows : 

" I told you to come alone ; you came accompanied ; and 
I did not address you. If you wish to know what I have to 
tell you, return this evening, and come alone." 

At the hour mentioned, the Minister returned to the rendez- 
vous, this time alone. He had not, however, neglected to take 
every precaution for the protection of his precious person. In 
each pocket of his coat he carried a pistol, and several policemen 
in plain clothes had preceded him, and concealed themselves in 
the vicinity, ready to rush to his assistance at the first alarm. 

Presently, a man emerged from the shadow of the trees and 

approached the Minister, who inquired if he were the writer of 

the anonymous letters. The stranger replied in the affirmative, 

and said that he was prepared to render a great service to the 

Government, by giving Monsieur le Ministre the means to seize 

z 



338 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

the person of the Duchesse de Berry. He added that it was 
necessary for him to proceed with the utmost caution, since, 
as he had been initiated into all the secrets of the Legitimist 
party, the leaders of that party in Paris kept him under close 
surveillance, and, if it were even suspected that he was in 
communication with a member of the Government, all would be 
useless. Thiers thereupon suggested that they should continue 
their conversation at the Ministry of the Interior, to which the 
other consented, on the understanding that he should be 
admitted by a private door. 

Thiers then returned to the Rue de Rivoli, where the 
stranger presently rejoined him. He was a man of thirty years 
of age, and of somewhat unprepossessing appearance, a German 
Jew, converted to Catholicism, Hyacinthe Simon Deutz by 
name. Born, in 1802, at Cologne, of very respectable parents, 
Deutz had come when a boy to Paris, where his father had just 
been appointed rabbi. He himself, a few years later, entered 
Didot's printing-house, and appears to have been employed 
there for some time. In his youth, he was a very strict Jew 
indeed, and when his brother-in-law, a M. Drach, abandoned 
the faith of his fathers for Catholicism, he was so enraged as to 
threaten him with personal violence. Not long after this, 
however, his attitude completely changed, and he announced 
his intention of entering the Catholic fold also. Mgr. de 
Quelen, Archbishop of Paris, to whom he addressed himself, 
thinking that his conversion might be more promptly and more 
efficaciously accomplished at Rome, advised him to proceed 
thither ; and early in 1828 Deutz set out for Italy, furnished 
with the warmest recommendations from the archbishop to the 
Cardinal Capellari, then Prefect of the Propaganda, and after- 
wards Pope, under the name of Gregory XVI. 

On his arrival in Rome, a pension of twenty-five piastres a 
month was allotted him from the funds of the Propaganda, and 
Leo XII. charged a distinguished ecclesiastic to instruct him in 
the Catholic faith. All who came in contact with the neophyte 
appear to have been much edified by his piety, and when he 
was received into the Church, he had the Baron Mortier, a 
Secretary of the French Embassy, for godfather, and an Italian 
princess for godmother. Shortly afterwards, he was presented 
to the Holy Father, who received him with great kindness and 
arranged for him to enter the Convent of the Holy Apostles. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 339 

Here he remained for two years, and was then despatched on 
a mission to the Jews of the United States, though we are not 
told whether he was successful in persuading any of them to 
follow his example. In the autumn of 1831, he returned to 
Europe, landed in England, and succeeded in insinuating him- 
self into the confidence of the French Legitimists whom he 
found there. For there can be no manner of doubt that M. 
Hyacinthe Simon Deutz was an amazingly plausible person ; 
and the exiles seem to have entertained as little suspicion of 
the sincerity of his political professions as did the ecclesiastics 
at Rome in regard to his religious convictions. 

After a short stay in England, he set out for Italy, in charge 
of the two daughters of the Marechal de Bourmont, whom he 
escorted as far as Genoa, where he left them with their mother, 
and proceeded to Rome. Pope Gregory XVI., as Cardinal 
Capellari had now become, received him very cordially, and 
when the Duchesse de Berry visited Rome at the beginning of 
December 1831, on her way from Naples to Massa, learning 
that his protege desired to enter her service, he recommended him 
to her as a person in whom she might place implicit reliance. 
The princess intimated her willingness to employ him, and 
towards the end of the following March Deutz proceeded to 
Massa. 

Madame, like every one else with whom this specious scoun- 
drel seems to have come in contact, was easily persuaded of his 
sincerity ; and, having provided him with ample funds, for her 
kind heart had been touched by his tale of poverty, sent him 
to Portugal, on a mission to Dom Miguel. 

There can be very little doubt that Deutz was already 
meditating treason to his employer, and that he had entered 
Madame 's service for no other purpose than to betray the plans 
of the Legitimists to the Government of Louis-Philippe. 
Indeed, he confesses as much in an apology for his conduct 
which he published in 1835, though he takes up a high moral 
ground and declares that he was actuated by the loftiest 
motives. " France was my love," he writes, " Louis-Philippe my 
Utopia. I resolved to sacrifice myself for the first, in strengthen- 
ing as far as was in my power the throne of the second. I 
was under no illusion as to the consequences of my action, but 
I was prepared to die a martyr for the cause " ; and so forth. 1 

1 Deutz, Arrestation de Madame. 



340 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Any way, as soon as Deutz learned of the failure of the la 
Vendee insurrection and the unsuccessful efforts of the Govern- 
ment to discover the hiding-place of the Duchesse de Berry, he 
wrote from Lisbon to Montalivet, then Minister of the Interior, 
offering his services. As he received no reply, at the beginning 
of October he came to Paris, and had an interview with the 
Minister, who declared that he had never received any letter 
from him. Whether this was the truth, and whether, if he 
had remained in office, Montalivet would have consented to 
sully his hands with this very dirty business, is difficult to say. 
But, a few days later, he was replaced by Thiers, and " it was 
with this honourable Minister," writes Deutz, "that I really 
treated of the affair of Nantes." 

Deutz told Thiers that Madame was concealed somewhere 
in Nantes, though he did not know at present her actual hiding- 
place. He did not, however, anticipate the least difficulty in 
discovering that, as he was entrusted with letters to deliver to 
her. And at a subsequent interview between them, which took 
place at a house in the Rue Richepense, and at which the 
commissary of police Joly was present, he showed the Minister 
a number of letters written in white ink, which had been 
confided to him by Jauge, the banker of the Legitimists in 
Paris. 1 

Thiers was satisfied that the Jew was really in a position to 
perform what he promised, and he decided to send him to 
Nantes, accompanied by Joly and twelve of his most experienced 
men, who were charged to keep a vigilant watch on all his 
movements, for he was not without suspicion that Deutz might 
be deceiving him. "You have letters," said he, "which are a 
sure means of reaching the duchess. You will carry them to 
her, and my agents will follow you. Here, for the rest, are my 
conditions : If you deliver up the princess, your fortune is made ; 
and you shall receive 500,000 francs. In the contrary event, 
you are in our hands, and you are an agent of the conspiracy ; 
and you will learn to your cost that people do not jest with 
impunity with the Government in so grave a matter." 

Deutz and Joly arrived at Nantes on October 22, the latter 
bringing with him orders from Thiers which placed both the 
civil and military authorities of the department of the Loire- 
Inferieure at his disposal. With the exception of the prefect 

1 MS. of Joly, published by M. Charles Nauroy, le Curieux, January 1885. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 341 

of the department, Maurice Duval, no one, however, was admitted 
to the secret. 

Deutz, who installed himself at the Hotel de France, under 
the name of the Baron Hyacinthe de Gonzague, lost no time in 
calling upon Madame de la Ferronays, sister of the count of 
that name and superior of the Convent de la Visitation, who 
was one of the most fervent Legitimists in Nantes, and begged 
her to obtain for him an audience of Madame, as he desired 
to inform her of the result of an important mission with which 
she had charged him. Madame de la Ferronays, who had 
never set eyes on her visitor before, and whose convent had 
lately been subjected to a domiciliary visit, at first protested 
complete ignorance of Madame 's whereabouts ; but eventually 
she communicated with the princess, who requested her to inform 
Deutz that she would receive him at half-past seven o'clock in 
the evening of October 31, at a house to which she would send 
a gentleman to conduct him. 

On the evening in question, M. du Guigny, a brother of the 
two ladies with whom Madame had taken refuge, presented him- 
self at the Hotel de France, inquired for the Baron de Gonzague, 
and, on that pseudo-nobleman making his appearance, showed 
him the half of a cut card and asked him to produce the corre- 
sponding half, which Madame had given him on his departure 
for Portugal. Deutz did so, and Du Guigny, satisfied as to his 
identity, thereupon conducted him to the Rue Haute-du-Chateau. 

As they were starting, Deutz inquired at what house he was 
to be received, to which his companion replied that it was " one 
to which Madame would only come to give him an audience, 
and which she would leave immediately afterwards." 

Four of Joly's men, whom Deutz had warned to be in 
readiness, were waiting outside the Hotel de France. They 
followed the traitor and Du Guigny, but at some little distance, 
walking in the shadow of the houses. On arriving at the house, 
Deutz found the Miles, du Guigny, Stylite de Kersabiec, and 
Guibourg 1 awaiting him. He inquired if Madame had arrived, 
and they told him that they believed that she had, as they had 
heard a sound in the next room. Then Mesnard entered, and, 

1 Guibourg had been arrested after the discovery of the incriminating docu- 
ments at la Chasliere, and lodged in the prison at Nantes. At the beginning of 
August, however, he contrived to effect his escape, and> shortly before this, had 
taken refuge with the Du Guignys. 



342 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

a moment later, the princess herself appeared from behind a 
partition, exclaiming : " Here I am, my dear Deutz ! " 

" At these words, pronounced so kindly," writes the traitor, 
" I began to tremble ; a mist rose before my eyes, and I felt ill. 
Then, with that kindness which was natural to her, Madame 
herself pushed forward a chair, adding : ' Recover thyself, my 
friend.'" 1 

As it had not been thought advisable to allow any one but 
a few of her most trusted adherents to know the house in which 
she was concealed, the princess was in walking costume, and her 
hat, her shawl, and her shoes had been sprinkled with dust, as if 
she had just come some distance. 2 She and Deutz had a long 
conversation in regard to the latter's mission to Portugal ; and 
the Jew, to lull any suspicion which she might entertain, agreed 
to set out on a mission to Madrid, and begged the princess to 
name him her plenipotentiary and to confer upon him the title 
of Baron de Gonzague, which he had already assumed, " since 
titles were indispensable at foreign Courts, and the name of Deutz 
was very short and little sonorous for a man who had to fulfil a 
mission in a foreign country." During the interview, which 
lasted more than an hour, he wept copiously, " the better to 
prove to Madame his zeal and also his great desire to be a baron 
in good earnest ! " 3 

While he was talking to Madame, Deutz had been expecting 
every moment to hear the police and the soldiers thundering at 
the door ; but, to his profound astonishment, their conversation 
was not interrupted, and at last he was obliged to take his leave. 
On his return to the Hotel de France, he learned that the four 
agents who had followed him and Du Guigny, fearful of arousing 
the suspicions of the latter, had kept so far behind that eventu- 
ally they had lost trace of the pair altogether. 

The chagrin of Joly and the prefect Duval at this fiasco was 
intense ; for Deutz could not be sure of identifying the house to 
which he had been taken, and, even if he had been able to do so, 
it was uncertain whether Madame was concealed there ; while 
they considered it extremely improbable that he would succeed 
in obtaining another interview with the princess. 

However, Deutz refused to despair of success. On the plea 
that he had forgotten several very important matters which he 
had intended to discuss with the princess, and had some letters 

1 Arrestalion de Madame. 2 Mesnard. 3 Mesnard. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 343 

to deliver to her, he solicited another audience. Mesnard and 
Guibourg, upon whom the Jew had made a far from favourable 
impression, strongly advised the princess not to accord it. But 
Madame, who was the soul of honour herself, utterly refused to 
believe that he was capable of such infamy as her friends sug- 
gested. " Why ! " cried she, in astonishment. " He was recom- 
mended to me by the cardinals, by the Pope himself. He has 
served me very well. He is very devoted tome ! " And, when 
they persisted, she closed the conversation by exclaiming im- 
patiently : " I have as much confidence in him as in you your- 
selves ! " And so, to the traitor's exultation, a second audience 
was granted him, and at four o'clock in the afternoon of 
Wednesday, November 6, he was again conducted to the Rue 
Haut-du-Chateau. This time, Joly and Duval took very good 
care that there should be no chance of a second fiasco. 

On being introduced into the room where Madame was, 
Deutz immediately began to speak of the intense desire which 
he had to serve her. He was interrupted by the arrival of a 
letter, which the princess opened and handed to Mesnard. It 
was from the banker Jauge, and written in white ink. Mesnard 
moistened it with some liquid which he had prepared, and 
returned it to the duchess, who read its contents aloud : 

" It is advisable to neglect no precaution, since we are warned 
that Madame will be betrayed by a person in whom she has 
every confidence." 

" You hear that, Deutz," said she, smiling ; " perhaps it refers 
to you." And Deutz replied in the same tone : " It is possible." 

Then the scoundrel, not content with the money which he 
was to receive as the price of his treason, made an attempt to 
enrich himself at the expense of his victim, and demanded a 
large sum to defray the cost of his mission to Spain. Madame^ 
however, replied that she had very little cash with her, and that 
he must be content with twenty-five louis and a letter of credit 
on a banking-house. 

Soon afterwards, Deutz left the house. On his way out, he 
passed the door of the dining-room and saw a table laid for 
eight persons. Evidently, whether Madame lodged in this 
house or not, she intended to dine there. And he hurried off to 
inform his accomplices. 

At half-past five, Madame de Charette and Mile. Celeste 
de Kersabiec, a younger sister of Eulalie and Stylite, whom 



344 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Madame had invited to dinner, arrived ; and, while waiting for 
the meal to be served, they all assembled in Pauline du Guigny's 
room on the second floor, which looked on to the street. It was 
a beautiful night, and the moon, shining in a cloudless sky, 
made it possible to distinguish objects at a considerable distance. 
Suddenly Guibourg, who was standing at the window, perceived 
a battalion of soldiers advancing towards the house. " Save 
yourself, Madame ! " he cried. " Save yourself ! " And the 
princess, followed by Mesnard, Guibourg, and Stylite de 
Kersabiec, all three proscribed like herself, rushed up to her 
bedroom on the floor above, where, by chance, they found the 
plate at the back of the fire-place, which gave admission to the 
hiding-place, already open. 

The order of entering and leaving it, in case of emergency, 
had been long arranged. As it would have been impossible for 
two tall men to make their way in the last, Madame had decided 
that Mesnard and Guibourg should enter first, and that she and 
Stylite de Kersabiec should follow. This arrangement was 
adhered to ; Mesnard threw himself flat on the ground and 
crawled in ; Guibourg followed ; then came Stylite de Kersabiec, 
and Madame brought up the rear. Mile, de Kersabiec had 
entreated the princess to precede her, to which she replied, with 
her usual sang-froid, that " in good strategy, when a retreat 
took place, it was the commanding officer who marched last." 
Scarcely had the plate closed behind her, when the room she 
had just quitted was filled with soldiers and police. 

The other occupants of the house behaved with admirable 
presence of mind. Before the invaders entered, the Miles, du 
Guigny, Madame de Charette, and Celeste de Kersabiec had 
gone into the dining-room and taken their seats at the table, 
which the servants hastily rearranged for four persons only ; 
the first course had been served, and they were all eating with 
apparent appetite. When questioned, they emphatically pro- 
tested that there was no one in the house, and the servants con- 
firmed what they said. Madame de Charette, who had passed 
herself off as a Mile, de Kersabiec, was conducted, with her 
supposed sister, to the latter's house ; a guard was posted over 
the Miles, du Guigny and their femme de chambre, Charlotte 
Moreau ; while the cook, Marie Bossy, who had nobly resisted 
an attempt to bribe her to betray her mistresses' secrets, was 
taken to the chateau. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 345 

Then began a systematic search of the house and of the two 
adjoining ones, with which the police believed that there might 
be some secret means of communication. Wardrobes and 
cupboards were forced open, boards and walls sounded, and 
chimneys explored. Joly mounted to the room where Madame 
had received Deutz, and the fugitives heard him call out : " Here 
is the audience chamber ! " Then they knew that it was the 
Jew who had betrayed them. 

As no trace of the princess or her companions could be 
found, architects were sent for and questioned as to the likeli- 
hood of the house containing some secret hiding-place. After 
examining each of the rooms in turn, they declared that, having 
regard to the conformation of the walls, it was impossible for 
the house to contain one large enough to shelter even a single 
person, and particularly so in the attics. Nevertheless, the 
masons whom the police had brought with them were ordered 
to demolish the walls, and soon the proscribed heard the sound 
of the picks coming nearer and nearer. Just, however, when 
discovery seemed to be only a question of a few minutes, orders 
were given to suspend further operations until the morning ; 
and every one quitted the room, with the exception of two 
gendarmes, who were left there on guard. It was then past 
midnight, and the search had been in progress for nearly seven 
hours. 

But let us allow one of the captives — Guibourg — to describe 
in his own words what followed : 

" The night was damp, and the cold penetrated through the 
roof. To remedy this inconvenience, which they experienced 
also, the two gendarmes on guard in the room began to light a 
great fire. At first, it benefited six persons, but soon the heat 
became more insupportable than the cold. The plate of the 
fireplace became red-hot on both sides, and more than one of 
the prisoners still bears the marks which were made by the least 
contact with that fatal door. However, the day was still far off, 
and one did not foresee the end of this frightful situation. The 
captives, obliged to change their positions, turned with incredible 
difficulty, and Madame found herself in front of the plate. Soon 
her clothes became so hot that the hand was no longer able to 
clasp them. . . . 

"Thus the night passed in the midst of tortures that a 
thousand devices scarcely served to mitigate. The workmen 



346 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

did not await the return of the light to recommence their 
labours. It seemed as though they intended to pull down the 
Hotel Duguigny and the adjoining houses. The walls re- 
sounded beneath their blows, and one did not know whether, 
after resisting the flames, Madame would not be crushed beneath 
the stone. . . . 

" Meanwhile, the gendarmes on guard had ceased to keep up 
the fire ; gradually, the air became fresher, and the plate cooled. 
On the other hand, the investigations appeared to be concentrat- 
ing around the hiding-place. Returning to this place for the 
twentieth time, they broke a panel and examined the displaced 
slate, which allowed a little air to pass to the captives. They 
sounded the wall which sheltered them again, and the hiding- 
place resounded with the blows of the hammers which were 
striking the wall about the plate. The plaster was becoming 
loose, the hiding-place was almost revealed, when the workmen 
abandoned this spot which they had so minutely explored. . . , 
The workmen left the house a second time, as did the autho- 
rities. The guards were withdrawn to the rez-de-chausse'e, and 
the third floor was guarded only by the two gendarmes who 
had remained in the room where the hiding-place was. 

" But this hope was not of long duration. The gendarmes 
had relighted the fire ; the plate, which had not had time to 
cool, became burning hot a second time ; the cracked wall let 
in the smoke ; the air of the hiding-place was no longer breath- 
able ; it was necessary to put one's mouth against the slates to 
exchange a breath of fire for a breath of outside air. Nor was 
this all. To the danger of being asphyxiated had just been 
joined the fear of being burned alive. The bottom of their 
garments threatened to catch fire ; already this accident had 
happened to Madame 's dress, and they trembled at the sight of 
a danger so imminent. Hope became impossible, and was 
replaced by the conviction that they could not remain an hour 
longer in this furnace without endangering Madame 's life. She 
recognised it also. . . . She gave orders to open very quietly 
the door of the hiding-place ; but the iron, dilated by the heat, 
resisted the efforts of Mile. Stylite de Kersabiec, and only 
yielded to repeated kicks from the men. 

" At this unexpected noise, the astonished gendarmes cried 
out : ' Who's there ? ' > Prisoners who surrender themselves/ 
replied the voices of the women. They assisted each other to 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 347 

emerge from the hiding-place, beginning with Mile. Stylite de 
Kersabiec. « I am the Duchesse de Berry ! ' cried the princess, 
courageously, rising to her feet. ' You are Frenchmen and 
soldiers ; I trust myself to your honour.' " 1 

It was half-past nine o'clock in the morning. They had 
been shut up for sixteen hours ! 

The two gendarmes — both former soldiers of the Royal 
Guards — were so touched by the sight of the princess, whom 
they had often seen in happier days, standing before them 
covered with dust and cinders, that they made no effort to 
detain her, and allowed her to pass into the adjoining room ; 
and possibly she might have succeeded in escaping by the roofs, 
had not some commissaries of police, who were in one of the 
rooms on the second floor, attracted by the noise above, mounted 
the stairs to ascertain what was going on. They made Madame 
enter the room where she had received Deutz the previous 
evening, and, at her request, sent to fetch General Dermon- 
court, the author of that picturesque but somewhat imaginative 
work, la Vendie et Madame? The general arrived and saluted 
her with profound respect. " General," said she, " I surrender 
to you, and entrust myself to your loyalty." " Madame," was 
the reply, "your Highness is under the protection of French 
honour." " I have nothing with which to reproach myself," 
resumed the princess ; " I have fulfilled the duties of a mother 
in endeavouring to reconquer the heritage of my son." 

Madame then asked that she might not be separated from 
her companions in misfortune, and Dermoncourt promised that, 
if it depended upon him, her request should be granted. His 
superior officer, the Comte Drouet d'Erlon, commanding the 
military division of the district, arrived on the scene a few 
minutes later, readily ratified the promise that had been given, 
and assured the princess that any request that she might make 
should be accorded, if it were in his power to do so. 

Duval, the prefect, then entered and demanded Madame's 
papers. She replied that they were in a white portfolio which 
she had left in the hiding-place. This, together with a bag of 
money, a portable press, and several proclamations, had already 
been seized by the police. 

1 Relation fidele et ditaillee de tarrestation de S.A.R. Madame, Duchesse de Berry 
(Nantes, 1832). 

2 It was written by Dvmasfire, from materials supplied by the general. 



348 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Meanwhile, the news of the capture had spread, and an 
immense crowd was beginning to assemble behind the cordon 
of troops drawn up around the house. Fearing a popular 
movement, the authorities decided that Madame and her fellow- 
prisoners must be conducted at once to the chateau. Dermon- 
court accordingly offered his arm to the princess ; the prefect 
escorted Stylite de Kersabiec, and, followed by Guibourg and 
Mesnard, they proceeded through a double line of soldiers and 
National Guards to the chateau, which was only a little distance 
from the house. 

Here Madame was installed in the apartments of the 
governor, who had gallantly surrendered them to his august 
prisoner, and was soon doing full justice to a very excellent 
breakfast, for nothing had passed her lips since the previous 
afternoon. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

The Duchesse de Berry, Mesnard, and Stylite de Kersabiec are removed from 
Nantes and conveyed to the citadel of Blaye, on the Gironde, on board the corvette 
Capricieuse — A stormy voyage — Arrival at Blaye, where Madame is installed in a 
house which had formerly served as the governor's residence — Consideration shown 
by the authorities for her material comfort — Extraordinary precautions taken to guard 
against any possibility of escape — Her daily life — She appears resigned to her fate, 
but has occasional violent outbursts of temper — Decision of the Government not to 
bring her to trial — Reason for this — Her continued detention justified to the Chamber 
on the ground that the public safety requires it — The true explanation. 

THE Duchesse de Berry only remained two days in the 
ancient residence of the dukes of Brittany. In the 
middle of the night of November 8-9, she was 
awakened and informed that orders had come from Paris to 
conduct her to the citadel of Blaye, on the Gironde, and that 
she was to start immediately. Stylite de Kersabiec and Mesnard 
were to accompany her, but not Guibourg, who, to the great 
indignation of the princess, had been taken back to the prison 
whence he had escaped three months before. 

At the gate of the chateau, d'Erlon, Duval, the mayor of 
Nantes Ferdinand Favre, and the deputy-mayor Vallet, were 
awaiting them, with two carriages. The captives and the 
authorities took their seats, and were driven to la Fosse, 
where they embarked on a steamer, on board of which were 
Colonel Chousserie, the officer commanding the gendarmerie of 
the Loire-Inferieure ; Joly ; Polo, one of the municipal officials 
of Nantes ; and four officers, Deas, Petit-Pierre, Robineau de 
Bougon, and Rocher. These seven persons had been selected 
to accompany the princess to Blaye, and Colonel Chousserie 
had just been appointed commandant of the town and citadel 
of Blaye. 

At Saint-Nazaire, which was reached at ten o'clock, they 
found a corvette, the Capriciezise, to which Madame and her 
fellow-prisoners were transferred, and the same afternoon they 
set sail for Blaye. 

349 



3SO A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

It was blowing hard when the Capricieuse left Saint-Nazaire, 
and before many hours the wind had increased to a veritable 
gale. Madame, though usually an excellent sailor, was very 
ill, while Stylite de Kersabiec was absolutely prostrated, and 
incapable of rendering her the least assistance. She was obliged 
to have recourse to the services of a young sailor, " who acquitted 
himself admirably of the delicate functions of private chamber- 
lain." * The corvette, moreover, though a tough little vessel 
and commanded by an excellent officer, was undermanned, or 
rather most of its best sailors had temporarily been replaced 
by raw hands, who had been sent on board for instruction in 
seamanship, and were practically useless in rough weather. In 
consequence, they were several times in considerable danger, 
and the captain did not conceal his anxiety from the gentlemen 
of the party. However, after what he stigmatised as " a dog's 
time," in the afternoon of November 15 the Capricieuse arrived 
at the mouth of the Gironde, where a steamer, the Bordelais, 
was waiting to convey the prisoners and their escort to Blaye. 
Their troubles were not yet over, however, for the boat which 
was conveying the party from the corvette to the steamer was 
as nearly as possible swamped ; and the passengers, instead of 
mounting by the Bordelais's ladder, had to wait until a wave 
carried the boat to the height of the bridge, when they were 
hauled unceremoniously on board. But at last the transference 
was safely accomplished, and the steamer, proceeding up the 
Gironde, landed them, at six o'clock that evening, at Blaye. 

The prisoners were received at the landing-stage by General 
Janin, commanding the 12th military division, the colonel of the 
National Guard, and the mayor, who escorted them to the 
citadel. " All passed off with order, tranquillity, and decorum." 2 

The town of Blaye is situated on the right bank of the 
Gironde, about twelve leagues from the mouth of the river. It 
stands on a rocky height, and commands a magnificent view of 
the surrounding country, from the slopes of the Me'doc, on the 
South, to the plains of Saintonge, on the North. The citadel, 
where the Duchesse de Berry was to spend the next seven 
months, was constructed by Vauban between 1685 and 1688, and 
includes a great part of the old town, in which he caused more 
than two hundred houses to be demolished. It is of great size 

1 Dr. Meniere, la CaptivitZ de Madame la duchesse de Berry d. Blaye. 

2 Randouin, sms-prifet of Blaye, to Thiers, November 15, 1832, in Nauroy. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 351 

— indeed, with its streets, squares, garden, barracks, church and 
hospital, it resembles a military colony rather than a fortress — 
and completely commands the Gironde, four kilometres wide at 
this point. Its summit is crowned by an old Gothic chateau, 
flanked by four bastions and surrounded by deep ditches, which 
contains the tomb of Caribert, son of Clotaire II. 

The duchess was installed in a modest but comfortable one- 
storied house, which had formerly served as the governor's resi- 
dence, situated in the interior of the citadel. Her apartments 
consisted of three rooms on the ground floor, boudoir, bedroom, 
and salon, and a fourth in an annexe of the building, which she 
used as a dining-room. Stylite de Kersabiec occupied two 
rooms adjoining those of the princess ; Mesnard was allotted 
a comfortable room in another part of the same house. 

Thiers had instructed the prefect of the Gironde that "nothing 
in the way of material satisfaction was to be refused to the 
prisoners," and everything possible was done for their comfort. 
The authorities paid more than three thousand francs for new 
furniture for the princess's apartments ; a piano, a lap-dog, and 
a parrot, were procured for her, 1 and General Janin carried his 
complaisance so far as to undertake personally the purchase of 
Madame's shoes. Finally, they wished to send to Bordeaux for 
the band of the 48th Regiment to divert her ; but the Bordelais 
protested so strongly that they were obliged to abandon the 
idea. 

At the same time, the most minute precautions were taken 
to guard the prisoners, and, if an enemy had been encamped at 
the gates, the fortress could not have been more strongly 
defended, or a stricter discipline observed. The strength of the 
garrison was raised to nearly a thousand men ; the cannon stood 
ready charged ; the guard was doubled ; the gates were locked 
at sunset, after which no one was permitted to pass in or out, 
and the corvette which had brought the prisoners to Blaye and 
two smaller vessels were stationed at the foot of the ramparts 
to defend the approach by water. Almost every day, Colonel 
Chousserie received letters from Paris enjoining upon him fresh 
precautions. The windows of Madame's apartments, already 

1 A receipt in the Archives Nationales informs us that 200 francs was paid for the 
parrot. A Nantaise lady subsequently sent Madame another parrot. The two birds 
for a time occupied the same perch, and their frequent battles greatly amused the 
princess. 



352 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

closely barred, were further protected by iron gratings ; sentries 
were posted day and night round the house, and, finally, pali- 
sades twelve feet high were erected, and other sentries stationed 
outside these. During the day, the prisoners were allowed to 
move about as they pleased within the cordon formed by the 
sentries, but at dusk they were locked up in their apartments, 
and were even forbidden to open the windows. The commissary 
of police Joly, to Madame 's intense disgust, was installed in a 
room at the end of the corridor. 

Ferdinand Petit-Pierre, one of the officers who had accom- 
panied the Duchesse de Berry from Nantes, kept a very interest- 
ing journal during his stay at Blaye, in which he describes the 
daily life of the captives. They rose at eight o'clock, break- 
fasted at ten, dined at six, and retired to rest at half-past nine. 
Every day, at noon, unless the courier had been delayed, the 
lieutenant of the fortress brought the journals to the princess, 
and conversed with her for a few minutes. Madame 's principal 
occupations were reading and tapestry-work. From ten o'clock 
until four she was permitted to walk in the garden adjoining 
the house, and generally availed herself of this concession, if the 
weather were fine. In the evening, Mesnard or Mile, de Kersa- 
biec often read to her aloud, and sometimes they played cards. 
Once, the lieutenant entering unexpectedly, found Mile, de 
Kersabiec telling her Royal Highness's fortune. Their only 
visitor from the outside world was the cure of Blaye, who had 
received permission to pay occasional visits to the princess. 1 

Madame did not allow herself to despond. She was, as we 
have seen, a young woman of great energy of character and of 
a singularly happy disposition, which enabled her to accommo- 
date herself to circumstances. Rich or poor, victor or vanquished, 
she accepted her fate and did what was necessary. It was thus 
that, one day, during her wanderings in la Vendee, she was 
found mending her stockings. " I had a governess," said she, 
laughing, " who taught me to darn, for she said that I never 
knew in what position I might one day find myself." 2 Joly, who 
certainly could not be accused of partiality for the princess, 
wrote, in a report which he sent to Thiers the day after 
Madame' s arrival at Blaye : " She has shown, from the moment 
of her arrest, a rare courage and evenness of temper ; her 

1 Journal de la captivite de la duchesse de Berry a Blaye (Paris, 1904). 
"■ E. Thirria, la Duchesse de Berry. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 353 

manners have been affable, and the sentiment of gratitude seems 
to be with her a predominant quality." 

Madame, however, was not always even-tempered. Naturally 
impatient of contradiction, she indulged now and again in violent 
outbursts, which occasioned her gaolers considerable astonish- 
ment. One day, towards the end of November, Petit-Pierre was 
charged by the commandant to inform the princess that he had 
received orders that the "Carlist" journals were no longer to 
be supplied to her. "Madame" he writes, "flew into a terrible 
rage, stamping her foot, and striking the furniture with her 
fist. ' So,' she cried, ' they are beginning a system of annoy- 
ances ! It is that scoundrel of a Thiers who is doing all this. 
Not content with lodging under the same roof as myself that 
accursed Joly, who presided at the murder of my husband, 1 he 
deprives me of the only means of ascertaining the persons who 
are interested in me. I will write to Paris. We shall see. For, 
at any rate, I am the niece of the Duchesse d'Orl£ans. She is 
my father's own sister. If I had her in my power, I would not 
have treated her like this. But can you expect anything else 
from her who caused her own mother to die of grief? Yes ; I 
will write to the journals. I wish to be brought to trial. We 
shall see who in France will condemn me. I have done as much 
good as I was able, and this is my recompense ! ' " 

With the assistance of Stylite de Kersabiec and the cure of 
Blaye, who happened to be present, Petit-Pierre succeeded in 
calming the indignant lady ; and, though the Legitimist journals 
were withheld, by way of compensation, the commandant ordered 
" that accursed Joly " to leave the house, and replaced him by 
Petit-Pierre, thus enabling Madame, as she expressed it, "to 
sleep in peace." 

If the Duchesse de Berry desired to be brought to trial, 
Louis-Philippe and his Ministers had not the least intention 
of gratifying her wish, for they were well aware that they had 
nothing to gain and a great deal to lose by such a step. 
"Members of royal families," observes Guizot, "always re- 
main, morally and politically, very difficult and very dangerous 
persons to prosecute, particularly when the throne which they 
used to surround has fallen in a tempest, and they have the 

1 Joly had been in charge of the police at the Opera on the night of the Due de 
Berry's assassination. Madame seems to have got the idea into her head that he 
ought to have foreseen and prevented the crime. 
2 A 



354 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

appearance of pursuing their rights in endeavouring to recover 
it. There is between their lofty position as princes, and their 
distress as fallen and accused persons, a contrast which inspires 
more sympathy on their behalf than their enterprises excite 
envy or alarm. Acquitted, they become almost victors ; con- 
demned, they are the victims of their cause and their courage." 
If Madame were condemned, she would undoubtedly arouse an 
immense amount of sympathy at present withheld from her ; 
and, moreover, her condemnation would be very unfavourably 
viewed by certain foreign Courts, especially by Spain and 
Austria. If she were acquitted, she would not only become a 
popular heroine, but her acquittal would be a virtual condemna- 
tion of the July Monarchy, and an invitation to the subjects of 
Louis-Philippe to rebel against him. The Government, there- 
fore, dared not prosecute the princess. 

Why then did it not order her to be conducted to the 
frontier and set at liberty, with all the honours due to her 
rank and all the respect due to her misfortunes ? Such an 
action would have been at once chivalrous and politic. She 
was a woman, a princess, the niece of the Queen, the widow of 
a murdered prince of the Royal Family of France, the mother 
of the boy who, in happier circumstances, would have one day 
ascended the throne, the daughter-in-law of Charles X. Was 
it not the bounden duty of Louis-Philippe and his Ministers to 
conduct themselves as chivalrous gentlemen towards her ? 

Moreover, from a legal point of view, her continued deten- 
tion, now that the Government had no intention of bringing 
her to trial, was absolutely indefensible. Thiers attempted to 
justify it to the Chamber on the ground that the public safety 
required it. Well, it was the " public safety " which, under the 
old regime, had been the excuse for the issue of the lettres de 
cachet ; and even the English journals, which had so loudly 
acclaimed the Revolution, did not fail to comment on the 
startling inconsistency of such an attitude with those liberal 
principles for which the " best of republics " professed so much 
regard. 

Nor was the plea even a valid one. The insurrection which 
the Duchesse de Berry had promoted had ended in the most 
complete fiasco, and had served only to demonstrate the utter 
lack of organisation and cohesion among the partisans of the 
exiled dynasty. It was obvious that some years at least must 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 355 

elapse before the disheartened Legitimists would venture to 
take up arms again, and that, when that time arrived — if it 
ever did — it would not be the Duchesse de Berry, but her son, 
who would be found at their head. 

No ; it was not consideration for the public safety ; it was 
not the fear that this redoubtable enemy would, if set at 
liberty, immediately proceed to organise a fresh enterprise ; it 
was not even the wish to throw a sop to the Cerberus of 
Republicanism, refusing to admit the principle of immunity for 
princes and declaring that every one was equal in the eyes of 
the Law, whatever their titles or their rank, which had decided 
Louis-Philippe and his advisers to keep the Duchesse de Berry 
under lock and key. It was because they had reason to suspect 
that, in a few months, an event would take place which they 
believed would dishonour the princess, and, in dishonouring 
her, dishonour her son, and deal a staggering blow to the 
Legitimist cause ; and they were determined that this event 
should be surrounded with all the publicity which it was possible 
to give to it. It was because they hoped to buttress the July 
Monarchy with the mud which would be thrown at a defenceless 
woman ! 



CHAPTER XXX 

First suspicion that the Duchesse de Berry is enceinte — Dr. Gintrac, of Bordeaux, 
visits the princess — Reticence of this physician — Refusal of Madame to see Barthez, 
the surgeon attached to the citadel ; her letter to the commandant, Colonel Chous- 
serie — The Government send Drs. Auvitz and Orfila to Blaye — The announcement 
of their departure followed by a violent outcry against the Ministry in the Legitimist 
journals, which demand the immediate release of the princess, on the ground that 
her captivity is endangering her life — Reports of the doctors — Rumour that Madame 
is enceinte begins to circulate in Paris — Article in the Corsaire, followed by a duel 
in which the writer is wounded — Threats of the Legitimists defied by the National 
and the Tribune — Twelve duels arranged — Armand Carrel, editor of the National, 
severely wounded in an encounter with M. Roux-Laborie — Wrath of the Republicans 
— Interference of the Government — Sad situation of the Duchesse de Berry at Blaye 
— General Bugeaud replaces Colonel Chousserie as commandant of the citadel, and 
subjects the unfortunate prisoner to the most rigorous surveillance — Despatches of 
Bugeaud to the Government — The declaration of February 22, 1833, in which 
Madame admits her condition, and declares that she was secretly married during her 
residence in Italy — Letter of the princess to Mesnard — The declaration is published 
in the Moniteur of February 26 — Immense sensation in Paris : joy of the Orleanists, 
consternation of the Legitimists — The secret marriage is not credited : scandalous 
rumours — Dr. Meniere at Blaye — He is summoned to Paris — Singular interview 
between him and Louis-Philippe. 

DURING the Duchesse de Berry's stay at the Chateau 
of Nantes and the journey to Saint-Nazaire, General 
Drouet d'Erlon had remarked to several persons : 
" // me semble que Madame est enceinte ! " Nothing seems to have 
occurred to confirm the general's suspicion for the first month 
after the princess's arrival at Blaye, but on the morning of 
December 8 Colonel Chousserie was informed that she had had 
a sleepless night and was feeling rather unwell, and that she 
wished to consult a Bordeaux doctor, who had attended her for 
a slight indisposition during her visit to that city in 1828. 1 She 
could not, however, remember his name. Chousserie wrote to 
Preissac, prefect of the Gironde, requesting him to ascertain 
who had attended the princess on that occasion and send him 
at once to Blaye, and, in the meanwhile, suggested that she 

1 Chousserie to Thiers, December 8, 1832, in Nauroy. 
356 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 357 

should see a local practitioner, but to this Madame testified an 
"insurmountable objection." 

Preissac was unable to discover the doctor required, but he 
sent a Dr. Gintrac, whom Madame consented to see. 1 Between 
that date and the middle of January 1833, Gintrac paid several 
visits to his august patient ; but he was a staunch Legitimist, 
and, beyond an assurance that there was nothing whatever to 
be alarmed about, the authorities succeeded in getting very 
little information out of him. The Government accordingly 
sent orders to Chousserie that Barthez, the surgeon of the 
garrison, was to see the princess. Madame absolutely refused 
to receive him, declaring that it was "incredible and monstrous" 
that he should be forced upon her. " However ill I may be- 
come," she writes to Chousserie, " I will only see the doctor of 
my own choice, or I will see no one. I have been able to look 
death calmly in the face in a cottage, in a ditch, and on the sea 
(as you are aware) ; and I shall be well able to see it approach 
my bed. This is my inviolable determination." 2 

However, in the night of January 16-17, the duchess was 
taken ill with symptoms which seemed to point very clearly to 
what had been for some time suspected. Chousserie at once 
sent a telegraphic despatch to the Government, and on the 21st 
two of the best doctors in Paris, Auvity and Orfila, were 
despatched to Blaye. 

Their departure, which was announced by the Moftiteur of 
the following day, aroused great alarm and indignation among 
the Legitimists. Its organs, the Quotidienne, the Gazette de 
France, the Revenant, and the Mode, 3 which for the past two 
months had never ceased to assert that there was no more 
unhealthy fortress in France than the citadel of Blaye, and had 
hinted, not obscurely, that it was for that very reason that 
Madame had been sent there, resounded with imprecations 
against the Ministry and summoned it, " if it did not wish to 
become the horror of the universe and of posterity," to set the 

1 Saint-Amand states that Madame had asked for Gintrac. This is incorrect, for, 
in a note which she sent on December 26 to Chousserie, the duchess complains that 
she " had not asked for him and cared little about seeing him, as she did not know 
him." 

2 Letter of December 26, 1832, in Nauroy. 

3 The Mode, as its name implies, was a journal for ladies, but it sandwiched 
between fashion-plates and lengthy descriptions of balls and weddings political 
articles of the most violent character. 



358 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

prisoner at liberty immediately. The Gazette de France ap- 
peared with a black border, in sign of premature mourning, and 
the Revenant expressed its belief that foul play was going on, 
and declared that if Madame died, " her life could only be paid 
for by another life." 

Auvity and Orfila arrived at Blaye on January 24, and, in 
company with Gintry and Barthez, visited the princess twice. 
On February 1, they drew up a report, which was forwarded to 
Paris and inserted in the Moniteur. In this they said nothing 
about the nature of the lady's indisposition, and confined them- 
selves to a defence of the salubrity of Blaye ; but in another 
report, which was signed by their colleagues as well, and which 
was intended for the ministerial eye alone, they, without going 
so far as to declare that Madame was enceinte, plainly showed 
that such was their opinion. 

Meanwhile, to the great joy of the Government, a rumour 
to that effect was beginning to circulate in Paris. A little 
Republican journal, the Corsaire, alluded to it. A Legitimist 
journal gave the Corsaire the lie, and a duel followed, in which 
the writer of the Corsaire article was wounded. That paper, 
nevertheless, continued its allusions, and, in spite of repeated 
provocations, its staff refused to be drawn again to the field of 
honour, sheltering themselves behind "the respect due to the 
political writer." The Legitimists declared that, if any one 
dared to reflect upon Madame 's honour, they would force the lie 
down his throat at the point of the sword. The National and 
the Tribune, irritated by the intimidation which their opponents 
were endeavouring to exercise, defied them collectively; and 
the offices of both journals were immediately besieged by fire- 
eating gentlemen who desired to cross swords with some 
member of their respective staffs. A dozen duels were 
arranged, and, on February 2, hostilities began with an encounter 
between Armand Carrel, the brilliant young editor of the 
National, and a M. Roux-Laborie. Carrel wounded his adver- 
sary twice in the arm, but received, in return, a thrust in the 
stomach, which was at first considered very serious. 1 

The Republicans, burning to avenge the popular journalist, 
published a kind of manifesto in the Tribune, announcing that, 
if the Government permitted the Legitimists to hold public 

1 Three years later, Carrel was again wounded, this time mortally, in a duel with 
Emile de Girardin, then editor of the Presse. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 359 

meetings, they would break them up by force. At this point, 
the Government, though it had viewed with complacency the 
quarrel between the two sections of the Opposition, felt obliged 
to intervene, in the interests of public order. All political 
meetings were prohibited, and police posted outside the offices 
of the different journals, with orders to shadow their inmates 
wherever they went and arrest them at the first symptom of an 
intention to engage in mortal combat. These measures proved 
effective ; the Republicans and Legitimists began to exchange 
compliments in lieu of insults, and turned all the venom in 
their pens upon the peacemaker. 

While the journalists were fighting over her with sword and 
pen in Paris, the situation of the prisoner of Blaye had under- 
gone a marked change for the worse. In the first place, there 
can be no doubt that the clamour in the Legitimist journals 
had a basis of truth, and that the climate of Blaye, at that 
season of the year, was not at all suited to her, particularly in 
the delicate state she then was. In the second, she had lost her 
faithful friends Stylite de Kersabiec and Mesnard, who had 
been summoned to take their trial, the one at Nantes and the 
other at Montbrison ; and though Brissac and Madame d'Haute- 
fort had come to take their places, she missed them sorely, 
and was, besides, very anxious as to their fate. And, finally, 
the chivalrous Colonel Chousserie, who had already twice re- 
quested to be relieved from duties which he had discharged 
with the greatest reluctance, had been replaced by General 
Bugeaud — the future Governor-General of Algeria — an officer 
of quite another stamp. 1 

Bugeaud arrived at Blaye on February 3. His orders were 

1 Thomas Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie. Born at Limoges, in 1784, he 
entered the army as a private, at the age of twenty, served with distinction in 
Prussia, Poland, and Spain, and had attained the rank of colonel at the time of the 
fall of the Empire. He accepted service under the Bourbons, but deserted to 
Napoleon on the Emperor's return from Elba, and commanded the advance-guard 
of the Army of the Alps. After the Second Restoration, he retired to his country 
estate and occupied himself with farming, of which he was passionately fond ; but in 
183 1 he was elected deputy for Perigueux. In 1834, he suppressed the insurrection in 
Paris, and in 1840 was nominated Governor- General of Algeria. Here he organised 
the Zouaves, and was everywhere triumphant over the Arab tribes, though his severities 
caused him to be severely criticised. For his victory over the Emperor of Morocco, 
at Tsly, he was created Due d'Isly and Marshal of France. He died of cholera, in 
Paris, in 1849. Bugeaud, who was a voluminous writer on military subjects, was a 
brave and most able soldier, but of a harsh and domineering character. 



S60 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

to exercise over his prisoner the most rigorous surveillance, and 
to endeavour by every possible means to wring from her a 
written confession of her condition. He carried out his instruc- 
tions con amove, and, from that moment, the unfortunate princess's 
captivity became one long martyrdom. Her liberty was sub- 
jected to the most galling and humiliating restrictions ; she was 
simply surrounded by spies — spies at her door, spies beneath 
her window, spies in the room beneath her own, who watched 
and listened to her conversation through a hole which had been 
made in the ceiling ; and Bugeaud and his officers invented 
pretexts for visiting her at least half a dozen times a day. 

Almost every day, the general reported the result of his 
own and his myrmidons' observations to the Government. He 
was much puzzled, however, by the cheerfulness and good- 
humour of his captive, and the profound respect with which 
Brissac and Madame d'Hautefort spoke of and treated her. It 
was difficult to reconcile the attitude of the princess and her 
companions with the fact that she was about to be publicly dis- 
honoured in the face of all Europe. " What disconcerts me," 
he writes to d'Argout, who, at the New Year, had succeeded 
Thiers as Minister of the Interior, 1 " is her gaiety. She sings, 
she hums, she plays with her parrots and her dog. Yesterday 
she was bewailing, in music, her poodle, who has a bad paw. 
All this causes me to suspect that, if she is in the condition we 
suppose, she has a fictitious marriage ready to explain it." And 
again : " The respect, the esteem, with which the companions 
of the duchess surround her, the constant gaiety of the latter, 
which is confirmed by the observations which- we make without 
her knowledge, all persuade me that, if she is enceinte, she 
has a cloak prepared to preserve her reputation, and that there 
is a marriage either secret or fictitious." 

The despatch from which this last extract is taken is dated 
February 22, 1833, 3 p.m.; and at half-past five on the same 
afternoon, Bugeaud added the following postscript : — 

"I have just been summoned to the duchess. She has 
almost thrown herself into my arms, weeping. She pressed 
my hands and confessed to me that she was secretly married 
in Italy, and that she is enceinte, and that she believes it her 
duty to her children, to her friends, and to herself to make 
the admission. I felicitated her upon it, and I asked for a 

1 Theirs had been made Minister of Commerce and Public Works. 






£$ '"'«*?^v 



flp* 




THOMAS ROBKRT BUGEAUD DE LA PICONNKRIE (AFTERWARDS 
DUG DISLY AND MARECHAL DE FRANCE) 

FROM A LITHOGRAPH BY B. ROUBAUD 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 361 

written declaration. She hesitated a little, but, finally, she 
consented. 

" I have three hundred pounds the less on my heart. I 
am happy ; the end is attained. The honour of the King and 
of the country is saved ! Everything favours the Throne of 
July." 

The document which excited such joyful emotions in the 
general's breast was as follows : — 

" Pressed by circumstances and by the measures ordered by 
the Government, although I had the gravest motives for keeping 
my marriage secret, I believe it my duty to myself, as well as to 
my children, to declare that I was secretly married during my 
residence in Italy. 

" Marie-Caroline 

" Citadel of Blaye, February 22, 1833." 

On the same day, Madame wrote to Mesnard, with whom 
she had received permission to communicate : — 

" I believe that I am going to die in telling you what 
follows ; but it is necessary. Vexations, the positive order to 
leave me alone with spies, the certainty of not being released 
until the month of September, have alone decided me to the 
declaration of my secret marriage, being no longer able to 
conceal my condition for my honour and that of my children. 
If I were to remain here, I should die. . . . Oh ! how I wish 
that I might be away from here, so that I might be tranquil ! " 

From this letter, it is evident that the declaration had been 
extracted from Madame by the promise of a speedy liberation, 
and Mesnard asserts that she had also received an assurance 
that her secret should be respected. The Government, however, 
had not the remotest intention of observing either condition ; 
and the declaration, which was transmitted to Paris early on 
the following morning, was published in the Moniteur of the 26th. 

The sensation which it produced may be imagined. The 
Orleanists could not contain their joy ; the Legitimists were 
aghast. In vain did their organs strive to throw doubt upon 
the authenticity of the declaration. In vain did they stigma- 
tize its publication by the Government as " a proceeding so 

1 Nauroy, la Duchesse de Berry. M. Nauroy, who, at the time when he wrote, 
was unaware of the existence of the documents which we shall presently cite, seems 
to regard this letter as a proof that Mesnard was the father of Madame 's child. 



362 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

immoral and so cynical that its parallel was not to be found 
in history." In vain did they declare that "a secret marriage, 
that is to say, a marriage of conscience, made before the altar, 
does not occasion any legal change in civil and political rights," 
and remind their readers that Marie Louise, notwithstanding 
her marriage with Neipperg, had received from the Congress of 
Vienna the title of empress, and that the Duke of Reichstadt 
had remained to the day of his death the hope of the Bona- 
partists. In vain did they shriek with exultation over the 
acquittal of Chateaubriand, whom the Government had been 
so ill-advised as to prosecute for his Memoire sur la captivite de 
M me la duchesse de Berry, and repeat in chorus his famous 
apostrophe of the princess: "Madame, votrefils est monroif" 
The hard fact remained that their heroine — this young woman 
whom they had hailed as a second Jeanne d'Arc — had failed to 
comprehend the duties which the enterprise to which she had 
set her hand required of her ; that she had not possessed suffi- 
cient loftiness of soul to consecrate herself exclusively to the 
cause of her son, and that the party, in consequence, had received 
an irreparable moral injury. 

For few, save those who had enjoyed the personal friendship 
of the princess, seemed to believe in a secret marriage ; and the 
most scandalous rumours were flying about. Some attributed the 
paternity of the expected child to Mesnard ; others to Guibourg ; 
others again to Rosambo ; while the more malicious declared 
that probably all three were entitled to lay claim to the honour. 
But most people, recalling the stories that had been current 
under the Restoration about Madame and her first equerry, 
declared that Mesnard must be the happy man ; and a chanson 
expressing this view of the matter, which we dare not reproduce 
here, was straightway composed and enjoyed a considerable 
vogue. 

Unhappy princess ! Not only did the scandal-mongers of 
the cafes and the salons refuse to believe her word, but the 
Ministers, and even the King and Queen, were or, at any rate, 
affected to be, equally incredulous. Louis-Philippe, with all 
his faults, was an amiable man, who never willingly harmed any 
one, and his consort, who was really attached to her niece, had 
entreated him to put an end to the scandal. But Thiers had 
represented to him that no personal consideration must be 
allowed to balance the imperative necessity of ruining the 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 363 

Legitimist party and rendering the Duchesse de Berry hence- 
forth impossible ; and he had permitted himself to be overruled. 

A few days before the declaration of February 22, the 
Government had despatched to Blaye Dr. Prosper Meniere, who 
enjoyed an extensive practice among the fashionable ladies of 
the capital, for which he was indebted as much to his charming 
manners as to his professional skill. Meniere, who, by his 
kindness and tact, soon succeeded in gaining the good-will of 
the Duchesse de Berry, kept during his residence at Blaye an 
exhaustive journal, which was published by his son, Dr. E. 
Meniere, in 1882, and is a work of the greatest interest. In 
this he relates how, at the end of March 1833, he received a 
summons to Paris, where the Ministers desired to question him 
personally as to the health of his royal patient. After being 
minutely interrogated by the whole Cabinet, severally and 
collectively, with the result that it was decided that Madame 
should lie in at Blaye, he received a command to present him- 
self at the Tuileries. Louis-Philippe received him with his 
usual amiability ; thanked him for the care he was taking of his 
niece ; inquired if the latter were much incensed against him ; 
begged the doctor to assure her that he had been in complete 
ignorance of Thiers' negotiations with Deutz, and that, in regard 
to her incarceration at Blaye, his hand had been forced by his 
Ministers, and that, deeply to his regret, he had been obliged 
to subordinate his personal feelings to reasons of State. Then 
he said : " The Queen would have liked to see you, Monsieur 
le Docteur, to recommend to you the Duchesse de Berry, but 
you will understand the sentiment of modesty which restrains 
her. The position of our niece is of a nature to clash with 
all her Majesty's instincts of a woman and a relative. She 
has not had the courage to overcome the embarrassment 
which this interview would occasion her, and you must be so 
good as to excuse her." 

Meniere, who was himself firmly convinced of the marriage of 
his royal patient, could scarcely believe his ears. " I considered 
it to be my duty," he writes, " to say at this juncture that the 
Duchesse de Berry had declared that she was married, and that 
everything in her conduct and in her words, since I had had the 
honour of being admitted to her, appeared to be in complete 
harmony with her declaration." "What you tell me," rejoined 
the King, " gives me the greatest pleasure. I will inform the 
Queen, who will not be less happy than I." 



CHAPTER XXXI 

The Government insist that the accouchement of the Duchesse de Berry shall take 
place in the presence of official witnesses, in order that her supposed dishonour may 
be established beyond dispute — Intolerable surveillance to which the princess is 
subjected — Violent scene between Madame and General Bugeaud — Precautions taken 
by the latter to ensure the publicity of the event — The princess consents to the 
conditions which the Government desires to impose — She gives birth to a daughter 
on the morning of May 10, 1833, and causes it to be announced that she is the wife 
of the Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli — The marriage of the Duchesse de Berry and 
Lucchesi-Palli no longer contestable — The marriage deed in the archives of the 
Vicariat at Rome — The letters in the archives of the Chateau of Brunnsee — Twofold 
importance of these letters, which establish not only the marriage, but the legitimacy 
of the child born at Blaye — The story of Madame 1 s secret journey to Rotterdam, at 
first received with incredulity, confirmed by them and the testimony of Madame 
Harson — Question whether Lucchesi visited the princess at Nantes — Proof adduced 
by M. Thirria — Reasons which induced the princess to guard the secret of her 
morganatic union — Her letter to Chateaubriand — Sad results of the scandal which 
her silence has provoked — Acquittal of the leaders of the insurrection — Chateau- 
briand's visit to Prague — Departure of Madame from Blaye — She sails for Palermo, 
where she is received by her husband, and disappears into private life. 

THE Ministry had not only resolved that Madame should 
remain in prison until after the birth of her child, but 
they had the barbarity to insist that the event should 
take place coram publico. Never did government attach more 
importance to a great diplomatic or military victory than did 
the Ministers of Louis-Philippe to the realisation of this 
programme. It seemed to them that the July Monarchy would 
be for ever consolidated, if what they believed to be the 
dishonour of the Duchesse de Berry were placed beyond all 
possibility of doubt ; and they took as many precautions to 
assure the authenticity of this birth as had the Government of 
Louis XVIII. to prevent any one from denying the birth of the 
Due de Bordeaux. 

As the time approached, the surveillance to which the 
prisoner was subjected became more and more rigorous. 
Doctors, officers, gendarmes, and detectives spied upon her 
incessantly, and there was scarcely an hour of the day or night 
when she could be sure of being free from prying eyes. The 

364 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 365 

unhappy princess protested vigorously against this treatment, 
of which the kind-hearted Meniere endeavoured vainly to 
secure some amelioration, and stormy scenes between her and 
Bugeaud were by no means infrequent. A particularly violent 
one occurred on April 24, when the following conversation 
took place : — 

Bugeaud: "Madame, your party denies everything and 
intends to deny everything. I am, accordingly, authorised to 
take all the precautions necessary to prove the event ; I owe it 
to the country and to the King." 

The Princess : " What are these precautions ? " 

Bugeaud: "Madame, from May 1, I shall make an officer 
and M. Meniere sleep in the salon adjoining your apartment." 

The Princess : " I refuse to have the officer." 

Bugeaud: "Madame, I shall be sorry to oppose you, but, 
having fulfilled all my duties towards you, it remains for me to 
fulfil the others." 

The Princess : "It is an infamy ! . . . I see that they wish 
to cause me to die ! To place gendarmes in my room ! " 

Bugeaud: "Madame, they will not be in your room, but 
only in the salon." 

The Princess : " I shall lock my door." 

Btigeaud: " That, Madame, cannot be permitted." 

The Princess : " Do you believe that I intend to kill my 
child?" 

Bugeaud: "No, Madame, I do not believe it; but, as there 
were people who doubted whether the Due de Bordeaux was 
your son, they may doubt your accouchement, if there are no 
witnesses. But, Madame, promise me on your honour that you 
will summon M. Meniere at the first symptoms, and I will place 
the officer in the adjoining corridor." 

The Princess : "You ought to rely on my good faith." 

Bugeaztd : "Madame, it would not be a breach of good 
faith to fail to do what one has not promised." 

The Princess : " It is horrible ! It is a frightful tyranny ! " 

"With that," says Bugeaud, "she rose in fury, rushed into 
her room, and slammed the door violently." * 

As Madame refused to give him the promise he required, 
the general redoubled his precautions. " I believe," he writes, 
" that I have taken all the precautions imaginable to be warned 

1 Bugeaud to d'Argout, April 24, 1833, in Nauroy. 



3 66 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

of the first symptoms. ... I have a sous-officier on the watch 
underneath the floor, and in the night an officer goes several 
times to her door. During the day, we visit her five times : 
Meniere from one to two o'clock in the afternoon, myself from 
two to four, and Meniere again from seven to ten or eleven in 
the evening. In the intervals, the officer on duty enters under 
one pretext or another. From the ioth, my witnesses will sleep 
in the citadel. In the day, I shall warn them by three cannon- 
shots from the vessel in the harbour." x 

At the same time, Bugeaud warned the princess that, unless 
the birth of her child were proved by the most unimpeachable 
evidence, the Government would refuse to restore her to liberty. 
This had the desired effect, and, on May 7, the princess 
"promised on her word of honour to execute the following 
conditions : — 

1. "She will give us warning at the appearance of the first 

symptoms ; 

2. "She will consent that the delegated authorities shall 

enter her apartment, to visit her and to establish her 
identity ; 

3. " She will declare to the delegates, after her accouchement, 

that the new-born child, who will have been shown 
to them, belongs to her." 

In return, Bugeaud engaged, on behalf of the Government, 
that she should be set at liberty as soon as she was con- 
valescent. 2 

Three days later (May 10), at twenty minutes past three in 
the morning, in the presence of the doctors Meniere, Deneux, 
and Dubois, General Bugeaud, the sous-prefet y the deputy-mayor, 
the commandant of the National Guard, the president of the 
tribunal of first instance, the procureur du roi, the cure* of Blaye, 
and the commissary of police, the Duchesse de Berry gave birth 
to a daughter. 3 " The presence of all these witnesses," observes 

1 Bugeaud to d'Argout, May 4, 1833, in Nauroy. 

8 Bugeaud to d'Argout, May 7, 1833, in Nauroy. 

3 "The President Pastoureau approached the princess and addressed to her, in a 
loud voice, the following questions : ' Is it Madame la duchesse de Berry to whom I 
have the honour to speak?' 'Yes.' 'You are certainly Madame la duchesse de 
Berry ? ' ' Yes, Monsieur.' ' Is the new-born child who is with you yours ? ' ' Yes, 
Monsieur, this child is mine.' ' Of what sex is it?' 'It is of the feminine sex. I 
have, moreover, charged M. Deneux to make a declaration to this effect.'" — Bugeaud 
to d'Argout, May io, 1833. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 367 

Thirria, " clearly demonstrates — for it was no longer a question 
of the birth of a Child of France — that the imprisonment had 
taken place not in chastisement of the Vendeen rising, but for 
the sole purpose of an accouchement public and shameful." 

But, to the general astonishment, the princess, so far from 
exhibiting any sign of shame, was radiant with pride and 
happiness. "He will be very pleased," she cried gaily; "he 
who was so anxious for a daughter! I told him that I was 
sure of it ; but he was as incredulous as these gentlemen of the 
Faculty." l 

Then she called Deneux, and said to him : " When the 
declaration of birth is made, you will name the father of my 
child. I desire that his name be inscribed on the prods- 
verbal." 2 And, a few minutes later, Deneux entered the salon, 
in which all the witnesses were assembled, and, " in a loud and 
intelligible voice," read the following declaration : 

" I have just delivered Madame la Duchesse de Berry, 
spouse in legitimate marriage of the Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli, 
of the Princes of Campo-Franco, Gentleman of the Chamber 
of the King of the Two Sicilies, domiciled at Palermo." 3 

The marriage of the Duchesse de Berry and the Count 
Lucchesi-Palli, which the Orleanists affected to regard with 
incredulity, asserting that the count had been persuaded by 
Ferdinand II. and the Royal Family of Naples to cover the 
princess's frailty, and which, until quite recently, certain 
historians were still found to question, is no longer contest- 
able, save by those who see a forgery in almost every historical 
document. It had been celebrated in Rome on December 14, 
1 83 1 — seventeen months before the birth of the little girl born 
at Blaye — by the Jesuit Father Rozaven, 4 to whom Gregory XVI. 
had granted a special dispensation. The marriage-deed was 
discovered, some twelve years ago, in the secret archives of the 
Vicariat, by M. Thirria, who has published an authentic copy 
of the document in his admirable monograph on the Duchesse 
de Berry : 

1 Dr. Meniere, la Captivite de Madame la duchesse de Berry h Blaye. 

2 Dr. Meniere. 

s Meniere ; Bugeaud to d'Argout, May io, 1833. 

4 Jean Louis de Lessegues de Rozaven ; born at Quimper, in Brittany, March 9, 
1772 ; died at Rome, April 2, 185 1. He was one of the most learned Jesuits of his 
time, and the author of a number of erudite theological works in various languages. 



3 68 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

" Fidera facio subscriptus, Almae urbis tribunalis, vicariatus 
secretarius, in libro primo Matrimoniorum, qui in hac secretaria 
asservatur, pagina 1 17, sequentem reperiri particulam ; videlicet : 
14 December 183 1 — I, the undersigned, certify that H.R.H. 
Marie Caroline Ferdinande Louise, Duchesse de Berry and 
M. Ettore Carlo, Count Lucchesi-Palli di Campo-Franco, having 
addressed themselves to me, confessor, to be united secretly by 
the bonds of marriage, reasons of State of the highest import- 
ance preventing this from being publicly celebrated, furnished 
with all the special faculties necessary to proceed to this union 
in the most profound secrecy, I have united them in legitimate 
marriage, without the presence of witnesses, as I had power to 
do. In token whereof three copies of the present deed have 
been written by my hand, two for the contracting parties, the 
third to remain in the secret archives of the Vicariat of Rome, 
in witness of the truth. Rome, 14 December 1831. Jean Louis 
Rozaven. We, the undersigned, certify the truth of the above 
deed, Rome, the fourteenth December, eighteen hundred and 
thirty-one. Marie Caroline — Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli. 

" Datum Romae e secretaria vicariatus, hac die tertia mensis 
Januarii, anno 1899. 

"Petrus Chicchi 

" Secretarius " 

If there were need of any further testimony, it would be 
forthcoming in the shape of two letters, both in Italian, which 
were found by the Vicomte de Reiset in the archives of the 
Chateau of Brunnsee, in Styria, where the Duchesse de Berry 
passed the last years of her life, and which is now the property 
of her son by Lucchesi, the Duke della Grazia. The first, 
which was written by Lucchesi to the princess, at Nantes, is as 
follows : 

" How long, my angelic wife {angelica mia sposa), am I to 
lament in this state ? Your rapid jom'ney, which exposed yoti to 
so many dangers, has been for me a torment the more, although 
I owe to it the happiness of having seen you again. I owe it to 
you and to the world to remain indifferent to all that concerns 
you, and even if you were obliged to declare my happiness, you 
wish my name to remain unknown. What fate is mine ! To 
you, duty is everything ; I am all despair. Release me, I 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 369 

entreat you, from this promise, which makes the unhappiness 
of every instant of my life ; trust in my prudence. Do you not 
think my heart would watch over you ? Farewell. E. L." 

The second letter is a reply to a later one of the count, 
written by Madame apparently towards the end of her imprison- 
ment at Blaye, 1 whence she succeeded in getting a few letters 
passed out, through the complaisance of the cure. 

u I am equally impatient, as you may suppose, my dear 
Ettore, to see you again, but I should be afraid for your sake 
if I made you come to a country where I am in prison, and 
where perhaps you might have to submit to the same fate. 
My only consolation is to have received your precious news 
and those of my children ; but too rare it is, and how I long to 
confide to the bosom of my Ettore, my best friend, all the 
details of what I have suffered ! You can form no idea of it ; 
but what consoles me, is that you have not been a witness of 
it ; with your heart so tender and so sensitive, you would have 
suffered a cruel punishment. 

" I give you back your promise ; you may speak of our 
marriage to our relatives and then to our friends ; the conse- 
quences of my rapid journey will soon oblige me to make our 
union known. Adieu, dear husband; may God soon reunite 
you to your affectionate 

"Caroline" 2 

These letters, which M. de Reiset declares to be of incon- 
testable authenticity, are of twofold importance. Not only do 
they establish the marriage, but they establish the legitimacy 
of the child born at Blaye as well, which was contested by 
many even of those who were prepared to admit the marriage, 
on the ground that no proof existed of cohabitation between 
the parties since Madame' s return to France at the end of 
April 1832 — that is to say, more than thirteen months before 
her child was born. 

The "rapid journey" to which both the count and the 
princess refer — this " rapid journey " which had " exposed her 
{Madame) to so many dangers," to which Lucchesi " owed the 

1 It obviously cannot be an answer to the one cited above, as M. de Reiset seems 
to suppose. 

2 Vicomte de Reiset, Marie-Caroline, duehesse de Berry. 

2 B 



370 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

happiness of having seen her again," and " the consequences 
of which would soon oblige her to make their union known " — 
was a journey from Nantes to Rotterdam and back again, 
undertaken by Madame at the end of July 1832. Its object 
was mainly political, namely, to negotiate through the Russian 
Minister at The Hague, where Lucchesi was at this time repre- 
senting Ferdinand II. of the Two Sicilies, a renewal of the 
alliance between France and Russia, destroyed by the Revolu- 
tion of 1830, in the event of the Due de Bordeaux recovering 
his throne, which we presume would have implied, in the 
meanwhile, very strong moral support for the young prince 
from St. Petersburg, if a favourable opportunity for exercising 
it should arise. So fearful was the princess lest, if her journey 
were ever to become known, she should be accused of seeking 
the armed intervention of the foreigner, and the cause of her 
son be thereby prejudiced, that she took the most elaborate 
precautions to conceal her absence from Nantes, even from her 
most faithful adherents. The inmates of the house in the Rue 
Haute-du-Chateau and one or two other persons alone were 
warned of it, and, as a further precaution, she left with them 
her ciphers, and documents signed en blanc. Moreover, she 
impressed upon those who were subsequently taken into her 
confidence that nothing concerning this journey was to be 
allowed to transpire so long as the Comte de Chambord were 
alive ; and it was not, indeed, until more than twenty years 
after that prince's death that the facts were made known to the 
public by the Baron de Mesnard, nephew of Madame 's faithful 
friend and reputed lover, in an article which he published in 
the Revue angevine in May 1902. Thus, the Duchesse de 
Berry, who might have easily put herself right with the world 
and established beyond all dispute the legitimacy of the child 
born at Blaye, preferred the interests of her son to her own 
reputation as a woman. 

M. de Mesnard gives some interesting details of Madame 's 
mysterious journey to Rotterdam. 

" She had," he writes, " less fear of being recognised in that 
town than at The Hague, where her husband, the Count 
Lucchesi-Palli, was charge-d 'affaires of Ferdinand II. of the 
Two Sicilies. The princess left the house of the Miles, du 
Guigny, accompanied by a woman whose presence of mind 
equalled her devotion, and disguised, like her, as a servant. 




CARLO ETTORE, CONTE I.UCCHESI-PALLI DI CAMPO-FRANCO 
(AFTERWARDS DUCA DELLA GRAZIA) 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 371 

The journey, which occupied nearly a month, passed off like 
her other two journeys in France, some time before, thanks to 
the concurrence of fortunate circumstances, of which Madame 
cared to speak but little, in the fear that certain curious and 
piquant details might promote indiscretions compromising for 
the secret to which she attached a capital importance. How- 
ever, in a moment of expansion, she happened to relate one 
day that, while on her way to Rotterdam, she had experienced 
intense alarm at Montmedy, a little town near the frontier 
of Luxembourg, whence she was to gain Holland. The princess 
believed that she was recognised by a young officer, who 
happened to be in the same inn as 1 herself. But the latter, 
immediately approaching the traveller, seized her gaily round 
the waist, as he might have done to a servant, whose costume 
she was wearing, and said to her, in a low tone : ' Be assured, 
Madame ; by my convictions I belong to the Republican party, 
but, in the French army, there is not an officer capable of 
denouncing a proscribed and fugitive woman.' The princess, 
transported with gratitude, embraced the brave officer, which 
amused the people who were in the room, who had not re- 
marked the very natural uneasiness which Madame had expe- 
rienced for some minutes. 

" Despite the entreaties of the person who had accompanied 
her, and the touching instances of the Count Lucchesi-Palli, 
who had not the same faith as she in the possibility of a fresh 
rising in Vendee, and who, in the most profound secrecy, had 
come twice to Rotterdam, the princess insisted on returning 
to Nantes. She said to them : ■ One of these fine mornings 
we may hear that a Republican insurrection has overturned 
the throne usurped by Louis-Philippe. Confronted by anarchy, 
the French, terrified, will wish to return to the legitimate 
Monarchy. At the head of the brave Vendeen peasants, I shall 
bring Henri V. back to Paris. In 1830, Charles X. prevented 
me from profiting by the good disposition of the people 
towards me. This feebleness cost him the throne. Never will 
Restoration be more national. My place is there at Nantes, 
in the midst of the faithful inhabitants of the West. My 
duty to myself, grand-daughter of Henri IV., is to return to 
that town, which I ought never to quit, except to take part 
in the rising, for which I shall give the signal at the moment 
when a new Republican movement breaks out in Paris. The 



372 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

struggle will recommence in Vendee with a new ardour. . . . 
The counter-order ruined everything in May ; but, this time, 
there will be no counter-order, and, for the happiness of the 
country, I shall restore to Henri V. that Crown of France which 
belongs to him. From the windows of the Miles, du Guignys' 
house I have had before my eyes, for two months, the Chateau 
of Nantes, where my ancestor Henri IV. signed the immortal 
edict which put an end to sixty years of civil and religious war- 
fare, and restored peace to exhausted France. With God's aid, 
it will be from Nantes that, for the second time, will come the 
salvation of France, which, with its legitimate King, will recover 
the Russian alliance so necessary to the two countries.' " 

The writer concluded by stating that his article had been 
inspired by " a noble woman, who modestly remained anony- 
mous, but who desired, before her death, to bear testimony to 
the patriotism of the Duchesse de Berry." 

The story of Madame *s journey to Holland at first provoked 
a good deal of incredulity, and it was pointed out that the Baron 
de Charette, who was the soul of honour, and the Miles, de 
Kersabiec had declared, in the most positive terms, that the 
princess had never once quitted the Du Guignys' house, from 
the time she entered it until the day of her arrest. M. de Reiset, 
however, in the course of a long controversy in the Interme'diare 
des chevcheurs et curieux'm. 1904-5, stated that a Madame H . . .,* 
an old lady who had been an intimate friend of the Duchesse 
de Berry in the princess's later years and possessed her entire 
confidence, had confirmed M. de Mesnard's story, and added 
that he possessed documentary evidence of its truth which 
ought to convince the most sceptical. This evidence, which he 
published in his monograph on the Duchesse de Berry, a few 
months later, was, of course, the two letters already cited. 

Until the revelation of the journey to Rotterdam, historians 
who believed in the legitimacy of the child had always asserted 
that the cohabitation had taken place at Nantes, whither Luc- 
chesi had come incognito to visit the princess. " M. Lucchesi," 
says Madame de Gontaut, " was charged by Madame to carry 
her manifestoes into la Vendee " ; and the Comte de Roche- 
chouart, who represented the Duchesse de Berry at The Hague 
at the time that Lucchesi was there, writes in his Souvenirs : 

1 Madame Harson, who lived with the Duchesse de Berry as her lecirice for many 
years. 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 373 

" I found at The Hague the Comte Lucchesi-Palli, a friend of 
Madame's childhood ; he was acting in the same interests as 
myself, and testified so profound an affection and so great a 
devotion for the princess that our relations became very intimate. 
I saw him every day. He made, however, one or two journeys, 
each lasting about a month, and it was asserted subsequently 
that he had gone to Nantes. For myself, I never knew the 
cause of his absence." 

The statements of Madame de Gontaut, though they cer- 
tainly point to the probability of Lucchesi being at Nantes in 
the summer of 1832, cannot, of course, be considered as evidence 
that he was actually there. But what M. Thirria considers a 
conclusive proof was discovered by him in the Archives Na- 
tionales. On May 7, 1833 — three days before the birth of her 
child — the Duchesse de Berry wrote to Chateaubriand, inform- 
ing him of her marriage to Lucchesi, and begging him to 
proceed to Prague, where Charles X. and the other members 
of the exiled Royal Family had now established themselves, 
and break the news to them. And in a postscript, after speak- 
ing of a treaty which she had been endeavouring to negotiate 
with William I., King of Holland, which was to provide for the 
reunion of Belgium to France, in the event of the Due de 
Bordeaux securing his throne, she added : " The Comte Lucchesi 
was charged by me to make the first overtures on the subject ; 
he contributed powerfully to their favourable reception." Well, 
these first overtures appear to have been made at the end of 
June 1832, and on July 19 the Prince of Orange, son of 
William I., wrote to Madame, in answer to a letter of hers 
which he had received a few days before ; and he concludes 
thus : " It is the person who has remitted to me your Royal 
Highness's letter whom I am entrusting with this." "This 
person," observes M. Thirria, "was Lucchesi, who came then 
secretly to Nantes precisely at the time when the conception of 
the child born at Blaye the following year must have taken 
place." » 

As for the reasons which induced Madame to guard the 

1 E. Thirria, la Duchesse de Berry. M. Thirria wrote two years before the 
Baron de Mesnard published his article in the Revue angez'ine. If, as the latter 
states, Madame set out for Holland "at the end of July," it seems not improbable 
that Lucchesi delivered the Prince of Orange's letter to her at Rotterdam, instead 
of at Nantes. 



374 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

secret of her marriage from even her most intimate friends, they 
are easy to understand. " It was," writes the Comte de Roche- 
chouart, "impossible for her. to divulge her morganatic union at 
the moment when she was undertaking her campaign in la 
Vendee ; she would have lost all her prestige, and have com- 
promised the success of the expedition ; and, finally, she knew 
that Charles X. would have been extremely angry, and have 
deprived her of the powers of Regent, granted by the Holyrood 
proclamation of January 27, 183 1." 

And Madame herself says in her letter of May 7 to 
Chateaubriand : — 

" I charge you then, Monsieur, to go specially to Prague and 
tell my relatives that, if I refused up to February 22 to declare 
my secret marriage, my intention was to serve further the cause 
of my son, and to prove that a mother, a Bourbon, did not fear 
to expose her life. I reckoned only to make known my marriage 
at my son's majority ; x but the threats of the Government, the 
moral tortures, pushed to the last degree, decided me to make 
this declaration. In the ignorance in which I am of the time 
at which my liberty will be restored to me, after so many hopes 
deceived, it is time to give to my family and to all Europe an 
explanation which may prevent injurious suppositions. I 
should have desired to be able to do so sooner ; but an abso- 
lute isolation, and the insurmountable difficulties of communi- 
cating with the outside world, have hitherto prevented me. 
You will tell my family that I was married, in Italy, to the 
Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli, of the princes of Campo-Franco." 

The Duchesse de Berry remained at Blaye for a month after 
the birth of her little daughter, who was baptized by the names 
of Anne Marie Rosalie. Her position was a very sad one. In 
the chimerical hope of concealing her marriage and of preserving 
her political rights, she had provoked a scandal which had humi- 
liated her family, ruined her party, and rendered herself for ever 
impossible, from the political point of view. 2 

1 That is to say, when he was fourteen years old, the age at which the kings of 
France attained their majority. 

2 Great as was the scandal, it was rendered infinitely worse by the maladroit 
conduct of the more violent Legitimists, of whom the Quotidienne was the mouth- 
piece. These gentlemen, after denying the pregnancy, denied the accouchement, and 
deposited at the Bar of Paris, against the Ministers, and at th e Bar of Bordeaux 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 375 

One consolation for the princess, in the midst of her misfor- 
tunes, was that the friends who had been arrested with her at 
Nantes had not suffered for their loyalty to her cause. Mesnard, 
Guibourg, and the Miles, du Guigny had been all acquitted ; 
Stylite de Kersabiec had not even been brought to trial, as, on 
her friends promising to take her abroad for a few months, she 
was released. The persons captured on board the Carlo 
Alberto and the leaders of the comic-opera insurrection at 
Marseilles had likewise recovered their liberty. The leniency 
with which the Government treated the leaders of the move- 
ment was in striking contrast to the punishment meted out 
to the unfortunate Vendeen peasants who had fallen into 
its hands, many of whom were sentenced to long terms of 
penal servitude. 

On May 26, Chateaubriand, charged by Madame to inform 
the exiled Royal Family of her marriage, arrived at Prague. 
He found Charles X. frankly sceptical about that event. " Ah, 
well ! " said he, " let the Duchesse de Berry go to Palermo ; let 
her live there maritally with M. Lucchesi, in the sight of all the 
world. Then we will tell her children that their mother is 
married ; and she can come and embrace them." l 

Madame had already decided on the course suggested by 
the old King, and on June 8 she sailed for Palermo, on board 
a French corvette, the Agathe. The Government, by way of 
inflicting a final humiliation upon its unfortunate prisoner — or 
what it believed would be a humiliation — sent instructions to 
Bugeaud that her departure should take place in the daytime, 
and caused a notification of the event to be circulated in all the 
country round, in the form of an order enjoining upon the people 
to treat her with respect. " It is necessary," wrote d'Argout, 
"that thousands may be able to say that they have seen the 
duchess and her child leaving the citadel." 

Madame was accompanied by her little girl and her nurse, 
Bugeaud and his aide-de-camp, Saint-Arnaud — the future 
marshal, who commanded the FYench in the early part of the 
Crimean War — Mesnard, the Prince and Princesse de Beaufre- 
mont, Drs. Deneux and Meniere, and her femmes de chambre, 

against the witnesses who had signed the prods-verbal, a denunciation "pour cause 
de presomption Ugale du crime de supposition d'enfant," which was published in full in 
their favourite organ. 

1 Chateaubriand, Mimoires d % outre-tombe. 



3?6 A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 

Mile. Lebeschu and Madame Hansler. The voyage was un- 
eventful, and remarkable only for the persistent way in which 
the princess snubbed Bugeaud. " She treated me," writes the 
general, " as if I had been for her a Sir Hudson Lowe. She 
affected to keep away from me and to break off her conversa- 
tion whenever I approached. En revanche, she was friendly 
and cordial to excess with the officers of the Agathe" 1 The 
officers of the corvette, from the captain downwards, sympathized 
with the princess, and treated her late gaoler with marked 
coldness — there was never much love lost between the Services 
in those days — and Bugeaud seems to have had far from a 
pleasant voyage. 

At mid-day on July 5, the Agathe cast anchor in the harbour 
of Palermo. A boat, manned by ten rowers, in which sat a 
chamberlain of the Viceroy of Sicily, the Governor of Palermo, 
a Sicilian admiral, and the Count Lucchesi-Palli, came along- 
side. The chamberlain was ushered into the princess's cabin 
and bade her welcome in the name of the viceroy. Lucchesi 
followed, and remained with his wife for half-an-hour, when he 
reappeared, with Madame on his arm. They remained on board 
till after dinner, during which the princess was serenaded by 
the occupants of a number of boats which had gathered round 
the vessel. Then Madame, after a last passage of arms with 
Bugeaud, who " begged her to be convinced that no one desired 
more earnestly than he her happiness — in Sicily," 2 took leave 
of him and the others ; presented the captain of the Agathe with 
a piece of tapestry which she had worked during the voyage ; 
gave a sum of money — equal to twenty days' pay — to be 
distributed among the crew, and stepped with her husband into 
the boat that was waiting to convey them to the shore. The 
officers of the corvette drew up along the starboard gang- 
way and saluted her with their swords ; the sailors swarmed 
into the rigging and cheered lustily ; and Marie Caroline, 
Duchesse de Berry, passed for ever from the fierce glare of 
publicity into the calm shadows of private life. 

1 Bugeaud to d'Argout, July II, 1833. 

e Bugeaud to d'Argout, July II, 1833. Bugeaud received from the Government 
a gratification of 40,000 francs for his services at Blaye. On his return to Paris, he 
was publicly insulted, in the course of a debate in the Chamber, by a Legitimist 
deputy named Dulong. A duel followed, in which Dnlong was killed. 



INDEX 



Acton, John, 4 et seq., 63 

Acton, Miss, 246 

Adelaide de France, Madame, 8, and 

note 
Agoult, Comtesse d', (cited) 24 
Agoult, Vicomte d', 67 
Alberto, of Naples, Prince, 10 
Albufera, Due d', 182 
Alloa, Maitre, 85 
Amiens, Bishop of, 223 
Amyclee, Bishop of, 1 50, 151 
Andouin, Madame, 127 
Anglesey, Marquis of, 288 
Angouleme, Due d\ See Louis Antoine, 

Ducd' 
Angouleme, Duchesse d'. See Marie 

Therese, Duchesse d' 
Aniche, Madame, 177 
Argout, Comte d', 264 et seq., 311, 360, 

■$6$etseq., 376 
Amould, Sophie, no 
Artois, Comte d'. See Charles X. 
Autichamp, Marquis d', 160 
Auvity, Dr., 357, 358 
Avaray, Comte d', 139, 202 



B 



Baccher, Gerardo, II, 12 

Baccher, Vicenzo, II 

Balbi, Comtesse de, 130, 202 

Barande, M. de, 235 

Barantt, Baron de, 157, 295 

Barbencois, Marquis de, 235 

Baring, Miss, 246 

Barone, Captain, 46 

Barthelerny, Comte de, 56 

Barthez, Dr., 357, 358 

Bayard, Chevalier, 65 

Beatrice of Savoy, 64 

Beaufremont, Prince and Princesse de, 

375 
Beaujolais, Comte de (Alphonse d'Or- 

leans), 18 and note 



Beauvais, Bishop of, 223 

Bellamy, Madame (mistress of the Due 

de Berry), 118 
Bellart, Francois de, 56 
Bellune, Due de, 56, 300 
Bentinck, Lord William, 20 et seq. 
Beranger, Pierre, 187 
Berry, Charles Ferdinand, Due de. See 

Charles Ferdinand 
Berry, Marie Caroline, Duchesse de. See 

Marie Caroline 
Berry, Miss Mary, (cited) 146, 147, 152 
Berryer, Antoine P., 320 et seq., 326, 327 
Berthier, Marechal, Prince de Wagram, 

191 

Bessieres, Marechal (Due d'lstrie), 91 
Bethisy, Comtesse de, 37, 48, 105, 106, 

143 et seq., 156 
Biron, Comte de, 245 
Biron, Comtesse de, 246 
Blacas, Due de, 25 et seq., 130, 202, 292 

etseq., 299, 314 
Blacas, Duchesse de, 33 
Blancheton, Dr., 146, 147 
Blonay, Mile. Juliette de. See Mrs. John 

Freeman 
Blonay, Baron William de, 70 
Boigne, Comtesse de, (cited) 79, 104 

note, 105, no, 119, 122, 170, 190, 

207, 208, 211, 225, 246, 248, 249 
Bombelles, Abbe de, 58, 106, 107, 121, 

123, 182, 197 
Bombelles, Charles, Comte de, 107 
Bonaparte, Jerome, King of West- 
phalia, 85 
Bonaparte, Joseph, King of Naples, 16 
Bonaparte, Louis, King of Holland, 131 
Bonaparte, Marie Letizia (Napoleon's 

mother), 131 
Bonreceuil, Auguste de, 308, 328 
Bordeaux, Due de. See Henri, Due de 

Bordeaux, afterwards Comte de Cham- 

bord 
Borgo, Pozzo di, 190 
Bossy, Marie, 344 
Bouchot, Henri, (cited) 109, 129, 228, 

245 
Bougon, Dr., 148 
Bougon, Robineau de, 349 



377 



378 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



Bouille, Vicomte de, 299 

Bouille, Vicomtesse de, 37, 4l> 106, 200, 
289, 293, 299 

Bouillon, Due de, 96 

Bourbon, Due de, 57, 216, 220, 224 

Bourbon, Duchesse de, 57, 58, 97 

Bourdonnaye, Comte de la, 268 

Bourgeois, Madame, 180 

Bourmont, Marechal de, 257, 292, 299, 
308, 302 et seq., 307 

Bourmont, Adolphe de, 299, 303, 310 

Bourmont, Charles de, 299, 303, 304 

Briche, Madame de la, 138, 149 

Brissac, Comte de, 169, 245, 293, 297, 
29% 302, 304, 308, 329, 359, 360 

Brocard, Mile. Caroline, 1 18 

Broglie, Due de, 79 

Broglie, Duchesse de, 206 

Brown, Amy (reputed wife of the Due 
de Berry), at the Opera in London, 66, 
67 ; her two daughters by the Due de 
Berry, 67, 68 ; question of the paternity 
of the other I children, 69 et seq. ; ques- 
tion of the reputed marriage with the 
Due de Berry considered, 77 et seq. ; 
follows the duke to Paris at the 
Restoration, 89 ; episode at the Opera, 
89, 90 ; secretly visited by the duke, 
91 ; and the assassination of the Due de 
Berry, 152 

Brown, Charlotte M. A. (daughter of the 
Due de Berry), 67 et seq., 152, 153, 155, 
156 

Brown, George Granville (reputed son 
of the Due de Berry), 67 et seq. 

Brown, Louise Marie (daughter of the Due 
de Berry), 67 et seq., 152, 153, 155, 

156, 343. 344 

Bugeaud de la Picannerie, General 
(afterwards Marechal and Due d'Isly), 
appointed commandant of the town and 
fortress of Blaye, 359 ; his career, 259 
note ; rigorous surveillance which he 
exercises over the Duchesse de Berry, 
360 ; his despatches concerning her, 
360 ; receives her declaration of Febru- 
ary 22, 1833, that she is secretly mar- 
ried, 360, 361 ; violent scene between 
him and the princess, 365 ; precautions 
taken by him to ensure the publicity of 
the accouchement, 366 ; present at this 
event, 366 ; escorts her to Palermo, 
375, 376 ; his duel with the deputy 
Dulong, 376 note 

Burney, Fanny (Mme. d'Arblay), 288 



Cairoli, Signor, 86 
Calonne, Comte de, 191, 237 
Campan, Madame, 203 



Capelle, Baron, 293 

Caracciolo, Admiral Francesco, II and 

note 
Caraman, Due de, 303 
Carlos II., King of Spain, 1 
Carlos III., King of Spain (Charles V. 

of Sicily and VII. of Naples), 2, 3 
Carlos IV., King of Spain, 6, 14 
Cm-net, the, 119 
Carrel, Armand, 358 and note 
Carrier, 334 
Carriere, Casimir Charles Oreille de, 94, 

153 

Carriere, Charles Chevalier de, 93 

Cars, Due des, 305 

Casimir-Perier, Jean, 113, 263 

Casteja, Madame de, 106, 200 

Castelcicala, Prince of, 47, 1 19 

Castellane, Marechal de, {cited) 92 
et seq., 122, 129, 130,205, 251 

Cathelineau, Jacques, 325, 326 

Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, 
238, 246, 273 

Caulfield, Miss, 246 

Cayla, Comte du, 203 

Cayla, Zoe Talon, Comtesse du, her 
history, 203 ; her appearance and 
character, 203 ; urged by Sosthene de 
la Rochefoucauld " to essay the role 
of Esther to the Ahasuerus of Louis 
XVIII.," 204; her first interview with 
the King, 204, 205 ; infatuation of 
Louis XVIII. for her, 205 a?idnote, 206 ; 
presented by him with the Pavilion of 
Saint-Ouen, 207, 208 ; her political 
influence, 208 ; her relations with the 
Royal Family, 208, 209 ; and the death 
of Louis XVIIL, 213 and note 

Caylus, Duchesse de, 246 

Chabrol, Comte de, 54, 220 

Chalons, Bishop of, 223 

Championnet, 9 

Chantelauze, 257 

Charette, Baron de, 283, 332 ; his mar- 
riage to Louise Brown, 70, 82, 83 ; at 
the Mary Stuart ball, 246 ; and the in- 
surrection of 1832 in la Vendee, 300, 
302, 316 et seq. ; his reverses, 328, 329 ; 
and the Duchesse de Berry's second 
marriage, 372 
Charette, Baronne de. See Brown, 

Louise 
Charette, Comtesse de, 239 
Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, 295, 

297 
Charles Ferdinand, Due de Berry, ne- 
gotiations for his marriage with the 
Princess Caroline of the Two Sicilies, 
25 et seq. ; writes to her to propose for 
her hand, 28 ; his portrait presented to 
her, 31, 32; married to her by pro- 
curation, 32 ; his letters to her, 33, 34, 



INDEX 



379 



38, 44, 45 ; bombards her with billets- 
doux during her journey from 
Marseilles to Fontainebleau, 48 ; 
leaves Paris for Fontainebleau, 49 ; 
meets the princess at the Croix de 
Saint-Herem, 50 ; his firstimpressions, 
50, 51 ; accompanies her in her entry 
into Paris, 54, 55 ; married to her at 
Notre-Dame, 55 et seq. ; his boyhood, 

61 ; pretty story concerning him, 61, 

62 ; emigrates with his family in 1789, 
62 ; a pupil at the Artillery School at 
Turin, 62 ; joins the Army of Conde, 
62 ; futile efforts of Louis XVIII. to 
provide him with a wife of his own 
rank, 63, 64 and note ; takes up his 
residence in London, 64 ; his appear- 
ance and character, 64, 65 and note ; 
an incorrigible gallant, 66 ; his 
relations with Amy Brown, 66, 67 ; 
his two daughters by her, 68, 69 ; 
question as to whether he was the 
father of her other children considered, 
69 et seq. ; his letter to the Comte de 
Clermont-Lodeve, 77, 78 ; question of 
his reputed marriage with Amy Brown 
considered, 79 et seq. ; returns to 
France at the Restoration, 88, 89 ; 
followed by Amy Brown and his two 
daughters, 89 ; episode at the Opera, 
89, 90 ; visits Amy and his children 
incognito, 91 ; the danseuse Virginie 
Oreille becomes his mistress, 91, 92 ; 
contributes to alienate the Army from 
the Bourbons, 92, 93 ; and the 
Hundred Days, 93, 94 ; his children by 
Virginie, 93 and note, 94 note; his 
conduct after the Second Restoration, 
94 and note, 95 ; and his marriage 
festivities, 98 et seq. ; happiness of his 
married life, ioi et seq. ; his love of the 
arts, 103, 104 ; his musical tastes, 104 ; 
his entourage, 104 ; on cordial terms 
with the Due d'Orleans, 112; his 
canvassing openly for votes against the 
Government leads to a violent scene at 
the Tuileries, 115, 116; resumes his 
pre-nuptial relations with Virginie 
Oreille, 1 17; attends a ball given by 
this lady, 117; violently reprimanded 
by Louis XVIII. , 117 ; his liaison with 
Mile. Sophie de la Roche, 188 ; his 
two sons by her, 118 and note; his 
other amours, 118 and note ; takes 
every precaution to conceal his " in- 
discretions" from his wife, 119 and 
note ; rupture between him and the 
Comte de la Ferronays, 121, 122; feels 
keenly the loss of his first son by the 
Duchesse de Berry, 123, 124 ; his con- 
versation with the Due d'Orleans, 
124; loves his wife, 124; his life at 



the Elysee, 125 ; advises Madame de 
Gontaut to establish herself as mistress 
in the royal nursery, 126; visits the 
Salon with the Duchesse de Berry, 
127 ; is criticised for not postponing a 
ball, 129 and note ; teaches his wife to 
shoot, 129, 130; ceases to take an 
active part in politics, 133; happy 
influence of married life upon his 
character, 133 ; his charity and kind- 
ness of heart, 133, 134; the recipient 
of threatening anonymous letters, 134 ; 
his gloomy presentiments, 135, 136 ; 
attends Comte Greffulhe's ball, 136 ; 
disturbing letters received by his 
host, 137; loses his temper at a 
shooting-party, 137 ; his regret and 
his atonement, 137, 138; his joy on 
learning that his wife is again enceinte, 
137 5 goes with the duchess to the 
Opera on the evening of Shrove- 
Sunday, February 13, 1820, 138, 
139 ; mortally stabbed by Louvel, 143, 
144 ; his last hours, 145 et seq. ; his 
death, 156, 157 ; his body transported 
to the Louvre, 160 ; his lying-in-state, 
165 ; his funeral at Saint-Denis, 165 ; 
monuments erected to his memory, 166; 
his heart deposited in the chapel of the 
hospital built by his wife at Rosny, 
227 
Charles V., Emperor of Germany, 191 
Charles V., King of Sicily. See Carlos 

III. 
Charles VII., King of France, 65 
Charles VII., King of Naples. See 

Carlos III. 
Charles X., King of France, 20, 25, 30, 
99, 142, 201, 213, 247, 299, 314, 371 ; 
meets the Duchesse de Berry, 49, 54 ; 
attends her wedding, 57, 58 ; and the 
Due de Berry's reputed marriage to 
Amy Brown, 83 ; and Madame de 
Polastron, 83 and note ; his affection 
for the Duchesse de Berry, no, III; 
his conservatism, 114; strained rela- 
tions with Louis XVIII., 115, 116, 
163, 164 ; and the Abbe Gregoire's 
election, 132 ; at the Due de Berry's 
death-bed, 148 et seq. ; and the Due de 
Bordeaux's entourage, 193 ; and the 
baptism of the Due de Bordeaux, 194 
et seq. ; and Mme. du Cayla, 208 ; and 
thedeath.of Louis XVIII., 213 et seq. ; 
his appearance and character, 218, 219 ; 
his entry into Paris, 220, 221 ; holds 
a review, 221, 222 ; his Sacre at 
Rheims, 223, 224 ; makes a State entry 
into Paris, 224 ; appoints the gouver- 
neur of the Due de Bordeaux, 235 ; his 
popularity waning, 241 et seq. ; de- 
spatches expedition to Algiers, 255, 



38o 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



256; signs the four Ordinances, 
257 et seq. ; his conversation with 
Madame de Gontaut, 258, 259 ; his 
conduct during the July Revolution, 
259, 267 ; leaves Saint-Cloud for Ram- 
bouillet, 268 et seq. ; abdicates in favour 
of the Due de Bordeaux, 271 et seq. ; 
Louis-Philippe's treachery to, 275 et 
seq., 281 ; leaves Rambouillet, 277 et 
seq.; his pathetic parting with the Gardes 
du corps, 282, 283 ; sails for England, 
284 ; arrival at Cowes, 285 ; ungene- 
rous attitude of the English Press to- 
wards, 287, 288 ; his life at Lulworth 
Castle, 288, 289 ; removes to Holy- 
rood, 289 et seq.; opposed to the 
Duchesse de Berry's bellicose projects, 
292 ; gives a kind of half-consent and 
confers on her the title of Regent, 
292, 293 ; and the second marriage 
of the Duchesse de Berry, 374, 375 

Charles Edward Stuart (Young Pre- 
tender), 291 

Chastelleux, Comte de, 63 

Chateaubriand, 177, 208, 326, 373 et seq., 
.(cited) 65, 79, 133, 292 

Chatre, Due de la, 48 

Chazel, Lieut., 307 

Chene, Abbe, 68 

Chesnaverie, Comte de la, 329 

Choiseul, Comte Cesar de, 144 et seq., 
285 

Choisy, Madame de, 209 

Chousserie, Colonel, 349, 351, 356 et seq. 

Christina, Duchess of Genoa, 27, 63 

Cirillo, Dominico, II 

Clermont-Lodeve, Comte de, 89; and 
Amy Brown, 66, 67, 75 ; and the Due 
de Berry's reputed marriage with Amy 
Brown, 77, 78, 83 et seq., 88, 90 ; and 
the assassination of the Due de Berry, 
144 etseq. 

Coco, Vincenzo, 12 

Coigny, Marechal Due de, 89, 152, 
178 

Coigny, Duchesse de, 66, 67 

Coislin, Marquis de, 318 

Coligny, Gaspard de, 246 

Collard, M., 231 

Conde, Prince de, 57 et seq., 63 et seq., 
106, in, 203 

Conde, Marie de Cleves, Princesse de, 
246 

Conegliano, Due de, 217 

Conforti, 4, II 

Conservator, the, 163 

Constant, Benjamin, 113 

Constitutionel, the, (cited) 187 note 

Contat, Mile., 92, in 

Corsair, the, 358 

Cosse, Comte de, 245 

Cosse-Brissac, Comte de, 59 



Costa de Beauregard, Marquis de, 75 

Courrier, Louis, 113, 192 

Coussergues, Clausel de, 162 et seq., 

177 
Cretineau-Joly, (cited) 321, 323 
Crillon, 65 

Croy, Cardinal de, 213, 216 
Crozat, 96 



D 



Damas, Due de, 36, 42, 48, 236, 272, 

274, 293 
Dambray, Comte, 56, 217 
Dampierre, Marquis Aymar de, 313, 316, 

317 

Dampierre, Marquise de, 316, 317 

Daudet, M. Ernest, (cited) 117, 164 

Dauphinot, Sergeant, 181 

Deas, 349 

Decazes, Due, 115 ; his early career, 130, 
131; enters the Cabinet, 131 ; affection 
of Louis XVIII. for him, 131 and note ; 
his liberal policy, 131 ; hated by the 
ultra-Royalists, 131 ; becomes Presi- 
dent of the Council, 132 ; and the 
assassination of the Due de Berry, 150, 
154, 161 ; accused by Clausel de Cous- 
sergues of complicity in the crime, 162 ; 
furious outcry against him, 162, 163 ; 
his fall, 164 

Delaroche, Paul, 118 

Delavigne, 113 

Delissert, M. Gabriel, 93 

Deneux, Dr., 178, 180, 182, 366, 367, 

375 

Derivis, 126 

Dermancourt, General, 325, 348, (cited) 
3io, 347 

Desaugiers, Marc, 126 

Desbies, 145 

Deutz, j Hyacinthe Simon, his rendezvous 
with Thiers in the Champs-Elysees, 337, 
338 ; his strange career, 338-340 ; 
agrees to betray the Duchesse de Berry 
into the hands of the Government, 340 ; 
sent to Nantes, 340, 341 ; his first 
interview with the duchess leads to no 
result, 341, 342 ; succeeds in obtaining 
a second audience, 343 ; his infamous 
behaviour, 343 

Devonshire, Duke of, 289 

Diavolo, Fra, 10 

Dombasle, Madame de, 15 

Dore, Mariette, 330 

Doudeauville, Due de, 202 

Drach, M., 338 

Drapeau blanc, the, 162 

Drogard, Dr., 146 

Dubois, 366 



INDEX 



38i 



Dulong, his duel with General Bugeaud, 

376 note 
Dumont d'Urville, Captain, 283 
Dupin, Andre, 271 
Dupuytren, Dr., 149, 151 et seq. 
Duval, Prefect, 342, 343, 347, 349 



E 



Edward, Duke of Kent, 129 

Enghien, Due d', in, 212 

Erlon, Comte Drouet d', 347, 349, 356 

Esclignac, Due d', 270 

Estang, Comte de Bastard d', 1 70 

Estourmel, Comte d', 280 

Estourmel, Comtesse d', 280 

Estrees, Gabrielle d', 65 

Eugenie, Empress of the French, 118 

Evreux, Henri, Comte d', 96 



Favras, Marquis de, 203 

Favre, Ferdinand, 349 

Feltre, Due de, 100 

Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, 297 

Ferdinand I., King of the Two Sicilies, 
ir 3> x 99> 20I i! his early training, 2; 
his rough manners, 3 ; his marriage 
with the Archduchess Maria Carolina ; 
governed by his wife, 3, 4 ; renews his 
alliance with England, 8 ; his expedi- 
tion against Rome, 9 ; flies to Sicily, 9, 
10 ; returns to Naples, 10 ; his savage 
vengeance on the Republican leaders, 
1 1 ; refuses to commute the death-sen- 
tence passed on Luisa di Sanfelice, 12 ; 
troubles with France, 15 ; again obliged 
to take refuge in Sicily, 15, 16 ; enter- 
tains the Due d'Orleans, 18 et seq. ; his 
arbitrary rule in Sicily, 20; abdicates 
his authority to the Prince-Royal, 21 ; 
signs order for the Queen's banishment, 
21 ; once more reigning at Naples, 22 ; 
assumes the title of Ferdinand I. of 
the Two Sicilies, 22 ; and the Princess 
Caroline's marriage, 25 et seq. ; and 
Princess Caroline's dowry, 31 ; obliged 
temporarily to resign his authority to 
his son, 176 ; once more triumphant, 
201 ; his death, 222 

Ferdinand II., King of the Two Sicilies, 
IS. 297 

Ferdinand IV., King of Naples, and III. 
of Sicily. See Ferdinand I., King of 
the Two Sicilies 

Ferdinand VI., King of Spain, 2 

Ferdinand VII., King of Spain, 14, 15, 
175, 201 



Ferdinand, Archduke, 6 

Ferronays, Comte Auguste de la, 105 ; 
his quarrels with the Due de Berry, 65 
note, 121, 122 ; and the Due de Berry's 
reputed marriage with Amy Brown, 
75, 87 et seq. ; Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, 242, (cited) 76 

Ferronays, Comtesse de la, 27, 33, 36, 37, 
42, 49, 105, 134 

Ferronays, Madame de la (Superior of 
the Convent de la Visitation at Nantes), 

341 

Ferte, Papillon de la, 122 

Figaro, the, 83, 86 

Filangieri, Gaetano, 4 

Fitz-James, Due de, 161 

Foissac-Latour, General de, 274 

Foresta, Marquise de, 193, 231 

Fouche, Joseph, Due d'Otrante, 112, 131 

Francis I., Emperor of Austria, 21 

Francis II., Emperor of Austria, 6 

Francis I., King of the Two Sicilies, 174, 
297 ; marries the Archduchess Maria 
Clementina, 6 ; his intellectual gifts, 
7 ; birth of his daughter Marie Caroline, 
the future Duchesse de Berry, 8; 
death of his first wife, 13 ; his second 
marriage, 14 ; accompanies the Royal 
Family to Sicily, 15 ; his life in Sicily, 
17; title of Vicar-General conferred 
upon him, 21 ; Marie Caroline's mar- 
riage, 26 et seq. ; succeeds to the throne, 
222 ; meets the Duchesse de Berry at 
Grenoble, 250 ; disappoints the inhabit- 
ants of Beziers, 251 ; his visit to Paris, 
252, 253 ; his death, 290 

Francois I., King of France, 65, 191, 
237, 270 

Frayssinous, Mgr., Bishop of Hermepolis, 
207 

Freeman, John (reputed son of the Due 
de Berry), 67 et seq. 

Freeman, Mrs. John, 69, 70 

Freeman, Robert (reputed son of the Due 
de Berry), 67 et seq. 

Fremilly, Baron de, 55, 197 

Freycinet, M. de, 86 



Galanti, 4 

Ganay, Comte de, 297 

Garnerin, Mile., 100 

Gaston, Due d'Orleans, 85 

Gaultier, Abbe, 231 

Gazette de France, 163, 357, 358 

Genoa, Duke of, 64 

Gintrac, Dr., 357, 358 

Giovanni, Don Paolo, 15 

Girardin, Emile de, 358 note 

Girardin, General de, 271 



3^2 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



Girodet-Trioson, 127 

Gontaut, Duchesse de, goes to meet the 
Duchesse de Berry at Marseilles, 36 
note ; her influence at the Elysee, 105, 
120 ; becomes dame d'atours to the 
Duchesse de Berry, 122 ; appointed 
gouvernante of the Children of France, 
125 ; and the assassination of the Due 
de Berry, 151, 157, 158, 159; and 
the birth of the Due de Bordeaux, 181 
et sea. ; and the baptism of the Due 
de Bordeaux, 1 93 et sea. ; her letter 
to the Due de Riviere describing the 
system of education she has pursued 
with the royal children, 231 et sea. ; 
created a duchess, 235 ; her conversa- 
tion with Charles X. on the day of the 
publication of the Ordinances, 258, 
259 ; and the July Revolution, 262, 
266 ; and the departure of the Royal 
Family from France, 269, 270, 273, 
274, 283 ; receives a letter from the 
Duke of Wellington, 286 ; at Lulworth 
Castle, 288 ; goes with Mademoiselle 
to Scotland, 289, (cited) 36 note, 38, 41, 
46, 50, 60, 75, 76, 89, 90, 105, 121, 
122, 125, 126, 134, 135, 137, 138, 147, 
148, 151, 156 et sea., 180 et sea., 195, 
196, 199, 215, 230, 232 et sea., 258, 
259, 262, 264, 266, 269, 272, 274, 
288 

Gourgues, Mme. de, 37, 48, 106 

Grandjean, Mile., 118 

Grave, M., 75. 77 

Gravier, 168 

Grazia, Duke della, 368 

Greffulhe, Baron, 136 

Gregoire, Abbe, 131, 132 

Gregory XVI., Pope, 338, 339 

Guibourg, Achille, 316, 317, 341 note, 

343. 344. 345 et se 1-> 348, 349. 375 
Guigny, M. du, 341, 342 
Guigny, Marie Louise du, 333, 334, 341, 

372, 375 
Guigny, Pauline du, 333, 334, 341, 344, 

372, 375 
Guise, Due de, Henri I. de Lorraine, 

238 
Guizot, Francois, 278, (cited) 353 



H 



Hamilton, Duke of, 245 
Hamilton, Emma, Lady, 5, 8, 10, II 
Hansler, Madame, 376 
Harson, Madame, 372 and note 
Haussez, Baron d', 292 
Hautefort, M. de, 130 
Havre, Due d', 36, 38, 41 
Haye, M. de la, 326 



Henin, Madame d', 206 

Henri d'Albret, King of Navarre, 177, 

183 

Henri, Due de Bordeaux, afterwards 
Comte de Chambord, 73, 74, 84, 
240, 258, 370; his birth, 71, 168, 180 
etsea., 364 ; and Louis XVIII. 's death, 
213, 215, 216 ; and Charles X.'s entry 
into Paris, 221 ; attends the review on 
the Champ de Mars, 221, 222 ; anec- 
dotes of his early years, 230, 23 1 ; educa- 
tional system pursued with him, 231 et 
sea. ; his gouverneurs, 235, 236 ; his 
kindness towards the wounded and 
starving soldiers at the July Revolution, 
266 ; Charles X. abdicates in favour of, 
271 ; and the departure of the Royal 
Family from France, 281, 282 ; his 
arrival in England, 285, 287 ; at 
Holyrood, 289 ; his mother's project 
to regain the French throne for, 292, 
293. 327. 37 1> 372 I Legitimist en- 
thusiasm for the cause of, 307, 315, 
316 

Henri IV., King of France, 65, 123, 
177, 178, 183, 210, 240, 250, 280, 

291. 371. 372 

Hesse, 127 

Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Hol- 
land, 203, 209 

Hugo, Victor, 176, 187, 290 

Huntly, Marquis of, 247 



Isabella Farnese (Queen of Spain), 2 
Issoudun, Comtesse d\ See Brown, 
Charlotte 



James II., King of England, 286, 287 

Janin, General, 350, 351 

Jeanne dAlbret, Queen of Navarre, 177, 

183 

Jeanne d'Arc, 291, 294, 362 

Joly (Commissary of Police), 340 et sea., 

349. 352, 353 
Joseph II. , Emperor of Germany, 6 
Josephine, Empress, 85 
Journal des DSbats, the, 49, 55, 101, 163, 

172 and note, 187 
Journal de Paris, the, 165, 1 76, 1 87, 194 



K 



Kergorlay, Comte de, 299, 300, 303, 304 
Kergorlay, Vicomte de, 299, 303 



INDEX 



383 



Kersabiec, Mile. Celeste de, 343, 344, 

372 
Kersabiec, Mile. Eulalie de, 325, 329 et 

&?>> 343. 372 
Kersabiec, Mile. Stylite de, 332 et seq., 

341, 344, 346 et seq.y 359, 372, 375 
Kriidener, Madame de, 97, 98 



La Chastre, 66, 75, 76 

Lacroix, Dr., 146 

Lafayette, General, 176, 275 

Laferriere, Colonel, 44 

Laffitte, Jacques, 113, 263 

Laine, 115 

Lally, Comte de, 190 

Lamartine, Alphonse de, {cited) 115, 132, 
140, 147, 151, 161, 164, 170, 206, 208, 
218, 219, 236, 266, 271, 283 ; and the 
birth of the Due de Bordeaux, 187 

Lamy, Eugene, 247 

Lannes, Marechal, 142 

La Reise, M., 82, 119 

Latil, Mgr. de, Bishop of Amyclee, 58, 
83 note, 148 

Lauriston, Mme. de, 37, 47, 106 

Lebeau, Julie, 71, 72 

Lebeschu, Mile., 302, 310, 311, 376 

Lebreton^Mlle. Resica, 118 

Ledhuy, Edouard, 303 

Lemoine, Madame, 158, 181 

Lenoir, M., 117 

Le Normand, 317, 318 

Leopold I., King of the Belgians, 335 

Leopold, Prince of Salerno, 20, 21, 32, 

34 
Leopold II., Grand Duke of Tuscany, 

297 

Levis, Due de, 33, 36, 40, 41, 50, 170 
Levis, Duchesse de, 121 
Liautuard, Abbe, 206, 208 
Lorge, Comte de, 313, 316, 317 
Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Due d'An- 
gouleme, 25, 28, 30, 93, 120, 142, 
172, 196, 241, 256, 259, 266, 288 ; 
goes to receive the Duchesse de Berry, 
49 ; attends the wedding of the Due 
and Duchesse de Berry, 54, 58; his 
marriage, 62 ; takes charge of the 
Due de Berry's natural J son, 93 and 
note; opens a State ball, 99; his 
affection for the Duchesse de Berry, 
no ; and the dissolution of the 
Chambre introuvable, 115 ; his strict 
morals, 119; his grief at the Due 
de Berry's death-bed, 148 et seq. \ and 
Louis XVIII. and Decazes,!i63, 164; 
commands the 'French Army in Spain, 
201 ; and the death of Louis XVIII., 



213 et seq. ; attends Charles X.'s State 
entry into Paris, 220, 224 ; persuades 
the King to leave Saint-Cloud, 268 
et seq. ; renounces his right to the 
throne, 272, 292 ; leaves France for 
England, 283 ; at Lulworth Castle, 
289 ; sails for Scotland, 289 
Louis XIII., 85 

Louis XIV., 1, 65, 74, 107, 237, 291 
Louis XV., 8, 97 

Louis XVI., 9, 28, 54, 106, 131, 173 
Louis XVIII. , 14, 34, 40, 41, 46, 191, 
192, 201, 315 ; opens negotiations for 
the Due de Berry's marriage to 
the Princess Caroline, 38, 39 ; his 
meeting with the Duchesse de Berry, 
50, 51 ; and the wedding festivities 
S3 et seq. ; and the Due de Berry's 
supposed marriage with Amy Brown, 
70, 83 ; his State entry into Paris, 89 
et seq. ; reprimads the Due de Berry, 
94 note ; gives the Elysee-Bourbon to 
the Due de Berry, 98 ; reviews the 
troops in the Champ de Mars, 99, 100 ; 
his affection for the Duchesse de 
Berry, 108, 109 ; his dislike of the 
Due d'Orleans, 1 12 et seq. ; his liberal 
policy, 114 et seq., 131 ; and the Due 
de Berry's amours, 117, 118; and the 
affair of the layette, 121, 122 j and 
the Due Decazes, 130, 131, 161 et 
seq. ; and the Due de Berry's assassina- 
tion, 154 et seq. ; bestows titles on the 
duke's daughters by Amy Brown, 
156 ; places Saint-Cloud at the 
Duchesse de Berry's disposal, 159 ; re- 
places Decazes by the Due de Riche- 
lieu, 164 ; attends the funeral of the 
Due de Berry, 165 ; and the Duchesse 
de Berry's pregnancy in 1820.. 169, 
170, 176 et seq.; his joy at the birth 
of a prince, 183 et seq. ; and the libel 
concerning the birth of the Due de 
Bordeaux, 190 ; attends the baptism 
of the Due de Bordeaux, 194 ; his 
infatuation for Madame du Cayla, 203 
et seq. ; her influence over him, 208 ; 
his last clays, 211 et seq. ; his death, 
214; his funeral, 216 et seq. 
Louis-Philippe, King of the French, 
57, 84, 124, 139, 143, 249, 287, 295 
et seq., 301, 325, 326 ; visits Ferdinand 
I., King of the Two Sicilies, 18 et seq. ; 
his marriage to the Princess Amalia of 
Naples, 19, 20 ; his friendly relations 
with the Due and Duchesse de Berry, 
in, 112, 113; refusal of Louis XVIII. 
to bestow on him the title of "Royal 
Highness," 113; not a faithful hus- 
band, 119 ; humiliation inflicted on 
him by Louis XVIII. , 121 ; and the 
Due de Berry's assassination, 147, 165, 



3§4 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



166; and the birth of the Due de 
Bordeaux, 183, 184, 189, 190; de- 
mands the cordon bleu for his son the 
Due de Chartres, 212 ; and the acces- 
sion of Charles X., 216, 220, 224; his 
ball at the Palais-Royal, 253 ; as- 
sumes the post of Lieutenant-General 
of the Kingdom, 267, 271, 272 ; his 
treachery to Charles X., 273 ; and 
Charles X.'s abdication, 276 ; assumes 
the title of King of the French, 281, 
371 ; and the Royal Family's de- 
parture from France, 278 ; his re- 
actionary policy provokes insurrections, 
3001; and the return of the Duchesse 
de Berry to France, 312 ; his treatment 
of the Duchesse de Berry, 353 et 
seq. ; affects incredulity concerning the 
second marriage of the Duchesse de 
Berry, 362 et seq. , 

Louis Philippe, Due d' Orleans (Egalite), 

84, 105 
Louise Isabelle d'Artois, 120, 121 
Louise d'Artois, called Mademoiselle, 
afterwards Duchess of Parma, 120, 
121, 122, 192, 193, 258, 293 ;;her birth, 
125, 126 ; her father's affection for, 
137 ; and death of Louis XVIII., 213, 
215, 216; witnesses the entry of 
Charles X. into Paris, 221, 222; 
visits Dieppe, 220, 249 ; at the Mary 
Stuart ball, 247 ; her early education, 

230 et seq.; system of education pur- 
sued with her by Madame de Gontaut, 

231 et seq. ; her marriage discussed, 
249, 250 note', her kindness of heart, 
266 ; and the departure of the Royal 
Family from France, 269, 270, 272, 
283 ; arrives in England, 285 ; at 
Lulworth Castle, 288 ; at Holyrood, 
289 

Louvel, Louis Pierre (assassin of the 
Due de Berry), his early life, 140; 
his violent animosity against the 
Bourbons, 141, 142 ; decides to 
assassinate the Ducde Berry, 142, 143 j 
stabs the duke as he is leaving the 
Opera, 144 ; his arrest, 145, 146 ; Due 
de Berry beseeches clemency for, 153 
et seq. ; and Decazes, 161 ; his trial and 
execution, 168 et seq. 

Lowe, Sir Hudson, 376 

Lucchesi-Palli, Count Ettore (second 
husband of the Duchesse de Berry), 
297, 298, 336, 367 et seq. 

Lucinge, Prince de, 69 et seq. 

Lucinge, Princess de. See Brown, Char- 
lotte 

Luigia Amalia, Archduchess, 6 

Luisa, Infanta, 250 

Luppe, Marquis de, 77 et seq., 84 

Luxembourg, Due de, 285 



M 



Macchi, Mgr., 187, 208 

Macdonald, Marechal (Due de Tarente), 
99, 188 

Mace, Pierre, 81, 82 

Mack, General, 8, 9 

Maille, Due de, 48, 148 et sqq. 

Maine, Duchesse de, 291 

Maintenon, Mme. de, 277 

Maison, Marechal, 95, 276, 277 

Manuel, 113 

Marguerite, Duchesse d'Orleans, 85 

Marguerite de Valois, Duchess of Savoy, 
246 

Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, 63, 
291 ; her marriage, 3 ; her character, 4, 
5, 29 ; her brilliant Court, 4 ; her 
influence over the King, 4; her 
children's marriages, 6 ; and her 
daughter-in-law, the Archduchess 
Maria Clementina, 7 ; and the flight 
from Naples on board Nelson's flag- 
ship, 9, 10; returns to Naples, 11 ; 
an exile in Sicily, 15 et seq., 24; her 
affection for the Duchesse de Berry, 1 7, 
18; her meeting with the Due de 
Orleans, 19 ; and Princess Amalia's 
marriage, 20 ; her persistent interfer- 
ence with Sicilian affairs, 20, 21 ; her 
banishment from Sicily, 21 ; her death, 
22 

Maria Christina, Queen of Spain, 15 

Maria Clementina, Hereditary Princess of 
the Two Sicilies (mother of the Duchesse 
de Berry), her marriage, 6 ; her life at 
Naples, 7 ; birth of the Duchesse de 
Berry, 8 ; flight to Sicily, 9 ; returns 
to Naples, 1 1 ; and Luisa di Sanfelice, 
11, 12 ; her illness and death, 13 

Maria Isabella, Queen of the Two Sicilies, 
14, 15, 17, 250 

Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 3, 
291 

Marie Adelaide of Savoy, Duchesse de 
Bourgogne, 101, 109 

Marie Amelie, Queen of the French, 
16, 22, 57, 58, 119, 256; her marriage 
to Louis-Philippe, 19, 20; her inti- 
macy with the Duchesse de Berry, 
ill et seq. ; and the assassination 
of the Due de Berry, 139, 143, 147, 
155 ; and the accession of Charles X., 
216, 220, 222 ; and the abdication of 
Charles X., 274 ; and the imprisonment 
of the Duchesse de Berry, 353 ; and the 
pregnancy of the Duchesse de Berry at 
Blaye, 363 

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, 3, 
9, 28, 40, 54, 116, 227, 247, 248, 251 



INDEX 



385 



Marie Caroline, Duchesse de Berry, her 
birth, 8 ; accompanies the Royal 
Family of Naples in its flight to Sicily, 
9 ; at Palermo, 1 1 ; loses her mother, 
13 ; second marriage of her father, 14 ; 
her early years, 1 5 ; again accompanies 
the Royal Family to Sicily, 15 ; her 
life there, 17; her education, 17; 
affection of her grandmother, Maria 
Carolina, for her, 18 ; her first meeting 
with Louis-Philippe, Due d'Orleans, 
19 ; her resentment against Lord 
William Bentinck, 22 ; her personal 
appearance, 23, 24 and ?wte ; her 
character, 24 ; her affection for Sicily, 
24, 25 ; demanded in marriage by 
Louis XVIII. for the Due de Berry, 
25 et seq. • portrait of her by the 
Comte de Blacas, 27 ; letters of Louis 
XVIII. and the Due de Berry to her, 
27-29 ; her reply to the duke, 29, 30 ; 
returns to Naples, 30, 31 ; her marriage- 
contract, 31 ; married by procuration, 
32 ; her letter to the Due de Berry, 
32, 33 ; falls ill of fever, 34 ; sails for 
France, 34, 35 ; arrives at Marseilles, 
36 ; subjected to ten days' quarantine 
in the lazaretto, 37 et seq. ; makes her 
official entry into Marseilles, 40, 41 ; 
ceremony of her delivery to the repre- 
sentatives of Louis XVIIL, 41, 42 ; 
her splendid reception at Marseilles, 
42, 43 ; visits Toulon, 43 ; corre- 
spondence between her and the Due 
de Berry, 43 et seq. ; her journey to 
Fontainebleau, 46 et seq. ; bombarded 
by billets-doux from the Due de Berry, 
48, 49 ; her meeting with the Royal 
Family at the Croix de Saint-Herem, 
50, 51 ; arrives at Fontainebleau, 51, 
52 ; her entry into Paris, 53 et seq. ; 
arrives at the Tuileries, 55 ; her mar- 
riage at Notre-Dame, 55 et seq. ; dines 
au grand convert with the Royal 
Family, 59, 60 ;, departs with her 
husband for the Elysee-Bourbon, 60 ; 
her apartments, 98 ; narrowly escapes 
a serious accident, 98 note ; takes part 
in the official marriage festivities, 98 
et seq. ', happiness of her married life, 
101, 102 ; community of tastes with 
her husband, 102 et seq. ; her House- 
hold, 104 et seq. ; attachment of Louis 
XVIIL to her, 108, 109; affectionate 
relations between her and the other 
members of the Royal Family, 109 
et seq. ; her visit to the old Prince de 
Conde at Chantilly, III ; her friendly 
relations with the Due and Duchesse 
d'Orleans, 113; endeavours to obtain 
the title of " Royal Highness " for 
Louis- Philippe, 113; holds aloof from 
2 C 



politics, 116; her growing popularity 
with the Parisians, 116; infidelities of 
her husband, wj et seq. ; her conver- 
sation on the subject with the 
Neapolitan Ambassador, the Prince 
Castelcicala, 119, 120; gives birth to 
a daughter, who, however, dies on the 
following day, 120, 121 ; her life 
during the winter of 1817-1818, 123 ; 
prematurely delivered of a son, 123; 
her enviable position, 124; her life at 
the Elysee, 125 ; gives birth to Made- 
moiselle, 125, 126; her portrait by 
Hesse, 127, 128; gives a magnificent 
ball at the Elysee, 129 and note; 
accompanies her husband's shooting- 
parties, 129, 130; and the Due de 
Berry's presentiments of approaching 
death, 135 ; again in an interest- 
ing condition, 136; attends Comte 
Greffulhe's ball, 136; goes with her 
husband to the Opera on the night of 
Shrove-Sunday, February 13, 1820, 
J 38| r 39; and the assassination of the 
Due de Berry, 143 et seq. ; her anguish 
at the death of her husband, 157 et seq. ; 
leaves the Elysee for Saint-Cloud, 159 ; 
returns to Paris and takes up her 
residence at the Tuileries, 167, 168 ; 
her first appearance in public since the 
death of her husband, 168 ; Jacobin 
attempts against her and her unborn 
child, 168, 169; her courage, 169; 
has a singular dream, 169 ; convinced 
that she is destined to give birth to a 
prince, 169, 170; presented with a 
sumptuous cradle by the market-women 
of Bordeaux, 177 ; gives birth to the 
Due de Bordeaux, 180, 181 ; her 
remarkable courage and sang-froid on 
this occasion, 181 et seq. ; gives orders 
that the military shall be admitted to 
see her son, 184; presented with a 
luminous bouquet by the garrison of 
Paris, 185, 186; an object of poetic 
adulation, 187; still feeling very keenly 
the loss of her husband, 192 ; at the 
baptism of the Due de Bordeaux, 193, 
194; attends a grand fete at the Hotel 
de Ville, 196 ; makes a pilgrimage to 
Notre-Dame de Liesse, 196, 197 ; 
resumes the habits of the early days of 
her married life, 199; her kindness 
and generosity, 200 ; her visit to 
Mont-Dore, 201 ; begins to entertain 
again, 201 ; her relations with Madame 
du Cayla, 209; her first visit to 
Dieppe, 209 et seq. ; and the death of 
Louis XVIIL, 214; accompanies the 
Royal Family to Saint-Cloud, 215 ; 
attends a Requiem Mass for the soul 
of Louis XVIII., 217; takes part in 



3 86 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



the entry of Charles X. into Paris, 
220 ; loses her grandfather, Ferdi- 
nand I. of the Two Sicilies, 223 ; at 
the Sacre of Charles X., 223 ; attends 
a fete at the Hotel de Ville, 224 ; opens 
a ball at the Tuileries, 224; assumes 
the title of Madame, 225 and note', 
her immense popularity, 225, 226 ; 
her life at the Chateau of Rosny, 226, 
227 ; her generosity to the poor of the 
neighbourhood, 227 ; builds a hospital, 
227 ; her visits to Dieppe, 227, 228 ; 
an intrepid sailor, 228 ; her benevo- 
lence, 228, 229 ; gives a picnic in the 
valley of Arques, 229, 230 ; the most 
devoted of mothers, 230; sets out on 
a tour through the West of France, 
237 ; visits Chambord, 237, 238 ; 
visits Blois and Saumur, 238 ; her 
enthusiastic reception by the Vendeens 
at Saint-Florent, 238 ; at Sainte-Anne 
d'Auray, 239 ; in the Bocage, 239 j 
magnificently received at Bordeaux, 
240 ; in the Pyrenees, 240 ; returns to 
Paris, 240; consequence of the im- 
pressionsiwhich she has received during 
this tour, 240 ; hooted by the National 
Guards at a review, 241 ; gives a " bal 
candide" and a " bal lure," 244; 
organises the Mary Stuart ball, 245 
et seq. \ calumny concerning her and 
her first equerry, the Comte de 
Mesnard, 249 et seq. ; her last visits to 
Dieppe, 249 ; visited by the Orleans 
family, 249, 250 and ?iote\ makes a 
journey to the South, to meet the King 
and Queen of the Two Sicilies, 250, 
251 ; receives them at Chambord, 253 ; 
gives a ball in their honour, 253 ; her 
conduct during the July Revolution, 
260, 263, 268, 273, 274 ; and the 
departure of the Royal Family from 
France, 277, 278, 280, 281, 282, 283; 
arrives at Cowes, 285 ; and the Times, 
287 ; kindness of the Marquis of 
Anglesey and his daughters to her, 
288 ; at Lulworth Castle, 288, 289 ; 
makes a tour through the West and 
Midlands, 289 ; in London, 289, 290 ; 
joins the Royal Family at Holyrood, 
290; death of her father, Francis I. of 
the Two Sicilies, 290 ; determined to 
endeavour to recover the Crown for 
her son, 290, 291 ; extraordinary 
influence of the novels of Walter Scott 
upon her imagination, 291, 292 ; 
refuses to renounce her bellicose pro- 
jects, 292 ; the title of Regent of 
France conferred conditionally upon 
her by Charles X., 293 ; returns to 
England, 293 ; sells her library and a 
portion of her jewels and pictures, 293 



note ; her stay at Bath, 293, 294 ; re- 
ceives enthusiastic promises of support 
from all parts of France, 294 ; sails 
for Rotterdam en route for Italy, 295 ; 
arrives at Sestri, 295 ; expelled from 
the Sardinian States on the demand of 
the French Ambassador, 295, 296 ; 
establishes herself at Massa, 296 ; her 
letter to the Comtesse de Mem-ay, 
296 ; visits Florence, 297 ; expelled 
from Tuscany, 297 ; sets out to visit 
her half-brother, Ferdinand II. of the 
Two Sicilies, at Naples, 297 ; her stay 
in Rome, 297 ; her friendship with the 
Count Ettore Lucchesi-Palli, 297, 298; 
her visit to Naples, 298 ; again in 
Rome, 299 ; her Court at Massa, 299 ; 
her illusions in regard to the situation 
of affairs in France, 299 et seq. \ her 
attitude in regard to the question of 
foreign intervention on her son's be- 
half, 301, 302 ; urged to take action 
by her adherents in France, 302 ; 
sends orders to the Legitimist leaders 
to prepare to rise in arms, 302 ; sails 
for Marseilles on board the Carlo 
Alberto, 302, 303 ; arrives off Marseilles, 
304 ; her perilous landing, 304 ; takes 
refuge in a gamekeeper's hut amidst 
the woods, 305 ; learns of the failure of 
the Marseilles insurrection, 305, 306 ; 
declines to accept defeat, and insists on 
setting out for la Vendee, 307, 308 ; 
makes a night's journey on foot, 308, 
309 ; makes a successful appeal to the 
chivalry of a Republican, 309, 310 ; 
reaches the Chateau of Bonrecueil, 
310 ; arrest of her friends on the Carlo 
Alberto, 310 ; her femmed'atours, Mile. 
Lebeschu, mistaken for her, 310, 311 ; 
total ignorance of the Government as 
to her whereabouts, 311,312; her 
journey to la Vendee, 312, 313; 
arrives at the Chateau of Plaissac, near 
Saintes, 314 ; issues a proclamation, 
316 ; sends orders to her adherents to 
take up arms, 316 ; leaves Plaissac for 
the Chateau of Preuille, 316, 317; 
assumes masculine attire, 317 ; sets off 
on foot for Bellecour, 317; nearly 
drowned, 317 ; arrives at Bellecour, 
318 ; declines to countermand her 
orders for the rising, 318 ; compelled 
to fly from Bellecour, 318 ; spends a 
night in a stable, 319 ; reaches the 
Chateau of Louvardiere, 319; at le 
Magasin, 319 ; receives further protests 
from the Vendeen leaders against the 
rising, 319, 320; refuses to entertain 
them, 320 ; visited by Berryer, who 
has persuaded the Marechal de 
Bourmont to issue a counter-order, 



INDEX 



387 



320, 321 ; promises to abandon the 
enterprise, but soon recalls her decision, 

321, 322; attends a council of war at 
le Meslier, 322, 323 ; issues a new 
order fixing the rising for the night of 
June 3-4, 323 ; leaves le Meslier and 
makes her way to la Mouchetiere, 
325 ; compelled to fly in the middle of 
the night, 326 ; her anguish on learn- 
ing of the disasters which have befallen 
her cause, 326 ; escorted by a band of 
Vendeen gentlemen to la Brosse, near 
Montbert, 326, 327 ; refuses Berryer's 
offer to conduct her to Savoy, 327 ; 
total failure of her insurrection, 327 
et seq. ; obliged to hide for six hours 
in a ditch, 329 ; resolves to take refuge 
at Nantes, 329, 330 ; makes her way 
thither disguised as a peasant-woman, 
330, 331 ; reads a proclamation offer- 
ing a large reward for information 
which may lead to her arrest, 331 ; 
recognised by an officer, who refrains 
from betraying her, 331 and note; 
arrives safely at the Kersabiecs' house, 
332 ; leaves the Kersabiecs, and takes 
refuge at the house of the Miles, du 
Guigny, 333 ; description of the 
mysterious hiding-place in her apart- 
ments, 333, 334 ; precautions taken to 
guard against her being surprised, 334 ; 
declines to leave France, 334 ; explana- 
tion of her determination, 335, 336 ; 
futile efforts of the Government to 
ascertain her whereabouts, 336 ; deter- 
mination of Thiers to effect her appre- 
hension, 336, 337 ; her early relations 
with Deutz, 339 ; her first interview 
with him at Nantes, 341, 342 ; con- 
trary to the advice of her friends, she 
accords him a second audience, 343 ; 
betrayed by him to the agents of the 
Government, 344 ; takes refuge in the 
hiding-place, 344 ; passes a terrible 
night, 345 et seq. ; obliged to surrender, 
347 ; conducted to the Chateau of 
Nantes, 348 ; conveyed to the citadel 
of Blaye, on the Gironde, 349, 350 ; 
consideration shown by the authorities 
for her material comfort, 351 and note ; 
extraordinary precautions taken to 
guard against any possibility of her 
escape, 351, 352 ; her daily life, 352 ; 
her indignation against the Govern- 
ment, 353 ; decision of Louis-Philippe 
and his Ministers not to bring her to 
trial, 353, 354 ; the pretended and true 
reasons for her continued detention, 
354, 355 ; first suspicion that she is 
enceinte, 356 ; visited by Dr. Gintrac, 
of Bordeaux, 357 and note ; refuses to 
see the surgeon attached to the citadel, 



357 ; visited by two Paris doctors sent 
by the Government, 357 ; her imme- 
diate release demanded by the Opposi- 
tion journals, 357, 358 ; reports of the 
doctors concerning her, 358 ; a rumour 
that she is enceinte begins to circulate 
in Paris, 358 ; her sad situation, 359 ; 
subjected to the most rigorous surveil- 
lance by General Bugeaud, 359, 360 ; 
makes a formal declaration that she is 
secretly married, 361 ; her letter to the 
Comte de Mesnard, 361 and note; her 
declaration, published in the Moniteur, 
causes an immense sensation, 361, 362 ; 
her secret marriage not credited, 362 ; 
singular conversation between Louis- 
Philippe and Dr. Meniere concerning 
her, 363 ; the Government insist that 
her accouchement shall be a public 
one, 364 ; intolerable surveillance to 
which she is subjected, 364, 365 ; 
violent scene between her and General 
Bugeaud, 365 ; precautions taken by 
the latter to ensure the publicity of her 
accouchement, 365, 366 ; gives birth 
to a daughter, 366 and note ; and 
causes it to be announced that she is 
the wife of the Count Ettore Lucchesi- 
Palli, 367 ; her marriage to the count 
and the legitimacy of her child no 
longer contestable, 367 et seq. ; reasons 
which induced her to guard the secret 
of her morganatic union, 373, 374 ; her 
letter to Chateaubriand, 374 ; sad 
results of the scandal provoked by her 
silence, 374 ; attitude of Charles X. 
towards her, 375 ; her departure from 
Blaye, 375 ; sails for Palermo, where 
she is received by her husband, 376 ; 
and disappears into private life, 376 

Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland, 
245, 246 

Marie Leczinska, Queen of France, 50 

Marie Louise, Empress, 21, 98, 107, 181, 
281 

Marie Therese de France, Duchesse d'An- 
gouleme, 28, 30, 54, 84, 99, 100, 
192, 196, 199, 225, 256 ; first meeting 
with the Duchesse de Berry, 49 ; attends 
the wedding of the Due and Duchesse 
de Berry, 57 et seq. ; takes charge of 
the Due de Berry's natural son by 
Virginie Oreille, note 93 ; her affection 
for the Duchesse de Berry, 109, no; 
her conservative views, 114, 115! an d 
the assassination of the Due de Berry, 
148, 188; attends the baptism of the Due 
de Bordeaux, 193, 194 ; and Madame du 
Cayla, 208, 209 ; and the death of Louis 
XVIII. , 213 et seq.; attends Charles X.'s 
State entry into Paris, 220 ; hooted at 
a review in the Champ de Mars, 241 ; 



3S8 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



joins the Duchesse de Berry at Dieppe, 
249 ; goes to Vichy, 256 ; the Royal 
family at Ramhouillet, 270, 271 ; and 
Charles X.'s abdication, 278 ; leaves 
France for England, 283 ; lands at 
Cowes, 285 ; and the Times, 287 ; at 
Lulworth Castle, 289 

Marmont, Marechal, Due de Raguse, 94, 
95 ; receives the cordon bleu, 188 ; 
organises a fete in honour of the Due 
de Bordeaux, 196 ; his conduct during 
the July Revolution, 271 et seq. ; reads 
Charles X.'s act of abdication to the 
troops, 274 ; an object of public 
animosity, 280 note, (cited) 182 note, 
197, 271, 281 

Marshall, Emma (reputed daughter of 
the Due de Berry), 67 et seq. 

Marsot, Pere, 68 

Martignac, Vicomte de, 242, 251 

Martin, Henri, (cited) 299 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 245, 291, 293 

Massena, Andre Marechal, 142 

Masson, M. Frederic, (cited) 97 

Maupas, Comte de, 235 

Mazarin, Cardinal, 55 

Meffray, Comte de, 122 

Meffray, Comtesse de, 122, 290, 296, 301 

Meniere, Dr. Prosper, 365, 366, 375, 
(cited) 350, 363 

Mercy- Argenteau, Comte de, 61 

Mesnard, Baron de, (cited) 370 et seq. 

Mesnard, Comte de, 89, 395 ; equerry to 
the Duchesse de Berry, 33, 37, 41 ; and 
the reputed marriage of the Due de 
Berry, 79 ; his history, 107, 108 ; his 
character, 108 ; narrowly escapes a fatal 
accident, 108 note; and the Due de 
Berry's assassination, 143 et seq. ; 
accompanies the Duchesse de Berry on 
her tour in the West of France, 237 ; 
attends the Marie Stuart ball, 246 ; 
scandal concerning him and the 
Duchesse de Berry, 248, 249 ; and 
the arrival of the Royal Family in 
England, 285, 286 ; tours England 
with the Duchesse de Berry, 289; 
with the Duchesse de Berry in Italy, 
293, 294, 297 et seq., 302 ; sails with 
her for France on board the Carlo 
Alberto, 302, 303 ; and the insurrection 
of 1832.. 304, 308, 313, 316, 325, 326, 
328, 332 ; captured with the duchess 
at Nantes, 342-348 ; imprisoned with 
her at Blaye, 348 et seq. \ sent for 
trial, 359 ; and the Duchesse de Berry's 
second marriage, 361, 362 ; reputed to 
be the father of the duchess's child born 
at Blaye, 362 

Meyronnet, Major, 93 

Mezzinghi, Abbate, 3 

Missiessy, Admiral de, 39, 43 



Mode, the, 293, 294, 357 and note 

Moliere, 191 

Moncey, Marechal, 188, 217 

Moniteur, the, 101, 123, 127, 180, 249, 

257 etseq., 357, 358, 361 
Montalivet, Comte de, 340 
Montbel, Comte de, 293 
Montes, Abbe, 175 
Montpensier, Due de (Antoine Philippe 

d'Orleans), 18 and note 
Montreton, Marquise de, 197 
Montsoreau, Comte de, 89, 135, 156, 

Montsoreau, Comtesse de, 67, 68, 121 

Morel, Captain, 93 

Mornay, Comte de, 245 

Morning Chronicle, the, 189 

Mortemart, Due de, 264 et seq. 

Mortier, Baron, 338 

Mouchy, Due de, 49 

Mornington, Earl of, 208 

Mornington, Countess of, 288 

Murat, Joachim, King of Naples, 16, 

22, 97 
Murat, Caroline, Queen of Naples, 97 



N 



Nacquart, Colonel de, 317 

Napoleon, Prince, 85 

Napoleon, I., 15, 21, 37, 49, 88, 89, 93, 

94, 140, 141, 191, 219, 220, 238, 359 
Napoleon, King of Rome and Duke of 

Reichstadt, 21, 88, 134, 181, 219, 

362 
Napoleon III., Emperor of the French, 

118, 166 
Narbonne-Pelet, Comte de, 34 
JVational, the, 358 
Nauroy, Charles, 76, 79, (cited) 68, 74, 

81, 85, 86, 144, 148, 174, 312, 340, 

357, 361 note, 365 et seq. 
Nelson, Lord, 8, 9, 10 
Nettement, Alfred, 274, (cited) 8, 40, 

III, 113, 136, 146, 169, 177, 182, 183, 

189, 301, 305 
Noailles, Due de, 86, 277 
Noailles, Duchesse de, 246, 277 
Noirlieu, Abbe Martin de, 235 
Northumberland, Duke of, 224 
Nuova Antologia, the, 1 1 



O 



Odilon-Barrot, 276, 277 

Olivieri, 15 

Oreille, Virginie (mistress of the Due de 

Berry), 87, 91 et seq., 1 17, 118, 143, 

153. 155 



INDEX 



389 



Orfila, Dr., 357, 358 

Orleans, Louisa Marie Adelaide, 84 and 

note, 139, 147, 216, 220 
Osmond, Marquis d', 79 
Oudinot, Marechal, Due de Reggio. See 

Reggio 
Ouvrard, 82 



Pagano, Mario, 4 

Pajol, General, 275 et sea. 

Palmieri, Luigi, 4 

Pasquier, Chancellor, 80, 161, (cited) 

208 
Pastoret, Marquis de, 300 
Pastoreau, President, 366 and note 
Patterson, Elizabeth, 85 
Paulmier, 145, 146 
Perigord, Cardinal de, 193, 194. 256 
Perigord, Comte Archambaud de, 130, 

202 
Petit-Pierre, Ferdinand, 349, 352, 253 
Philip V., King of Spain, I, 2 
Pimentel, Eleonora de, 4, 1 1 
Pius VI., Pope, 9 
Pius VII., Pope, 49, 79, 85 
Podenas, Marquis de, 299 
Podenas, Marquise de, 237, 246, 299 

Poitiers, Diane de, 246 and note 
Polastron, Comtesse de.,83, no and note, 

218 
Pole-Carew, Miss, 246 
Polignac, Due Armand de, 293 

Polignac, Prince Charles de, 148 
Polignac, Prince Jules de, 251, 259, 264, 
266 

Polignac, Comte Melchior de, 271 

Polo, M., 349 

Pompadour, Marquise de, 96, 87 and note 

Portal, Baron, 214 

Portland, Duke of, 66 

Poupet, Henri, 81, 82 

Pourreau, Francoise, 330 

Preissac (Prefect of the Gironde), 356, 

367 

Presse, the, 358 note 

Puyseux, Comte Henri de, 322, 326 



Quelen, Mgr. de, Archbishop of Paris, 

338 
Qiwtidienne, the, 163, 357, 374 



Ravez, 217 

Reggio, Ducde, 33 note, 37, 54, 188 



Reggio, Duchesse de, 106, 237, 251 ; ap- 
pointed dame d'/ionneur to the Duchesse 
de Berry, 33, 36, 38 ; attends the Due 
and Duchesse de Berry's wedding, 41, 
42, 49, 50, 60 ; her tact, 104, 105 ; 
and the Due de Berry's assassination, 
156 ; and the birth of the Due de 
Bordeaux, 182 

Reiset, Lieutenant-General Vicomte de, 
(cited) 23, 24, 149, 151 note, 155, 156 
note, 170, 179, 182, 269, 279, 280 

Reiset, Vicomte de, 29, 79, 85 note, 
(cited) 7, 18, 64, 68, 70, 76, 82, 
84, 86, 87, 118, 130, 192, 248, 368, 

369 
Remusat, Charles, (cited) 157 
Remusat, Madame de, 120 
Revenant, the, 357, 358 
Revue des Deux Mondes, the, 172 note 
Rheims, Archbishop of, in, 223 
Richelieu, Due de, 95, 115, 164, 178, 

208, 242 
Rivera, Comtesse de, 231 
Riviere, Due de, 231, 235, 236 
Roberie, Celine de la, 328 
Roberie, Hyacinthe de la, 319, 325, 326, 

328, 329 
Robert, Due de Chartres, 124, 143, 

183, 212, 245 et sea., 249, 250 and 

note 
Robert, Colonel, 93 
Robespierre, 54 
Roche, Charles Ferdinand, Comte de la, 

118 and note 
Roche, Charles Ferdinand, 118 and note 
Roche, Mile. Sophie de la (mistress of 

the Ducde Berry), 1 18 
Rochechouart, Comte de, (cited) 136, 372, 

373. 374 
Roche-Fontenelles, Comte de, 299 
Rochefoucauld, Vicomte Sosthene de 

l a i I S7> I S 8 » 202 > 2o5 » 2 °8> (cited) 

204 
Rochejaquelein, Comtesse de la, 302 
Rochemore, Marquis de, 41 
Rocher, Abbe, 212 
Rocher (officer), 349 
Rochon, M., 61, 62 
Roger, M., 280 
Roll, Louis, Baron de, 68, 87 
Rome, King of. See Napoleon 
Rosambo, Comte de, 246, 294, 295, 299, 

362 
Rosambo, Mme. de, 106 
Roserie, Mile. Deux de la (mistress of 

the Due de Berry), 118 
Rosny, Chateau of, 226 et sea. 
Rouillet, 146 
Roux-Laborie, M., 358 
Rozaven, Pere, 367 
Rudolfi, Count de, 289 
Ruffo, Cardinal Fabrizio, 10, II, 32 



39° 



A PRINCESS OF ADVENTURE 



Sabatier, Alexis, 303 

Saint- Andre, M. de la Roche, 319 

Saint-Amand, Baron Imbert de, (cited) 

14, 16 note, 26, 43, 102, 145 note, 

169, 176, 190, 197, 206, 236, 290, 294, 

332, 357 note 
Saint- Ange, Mile, de, 118 
Saint-Arnaud, Marechal de, 375 
Sainte-Aulaire, Marquis de, 163 
Saint-Hilaire, Barthelemy, (cited) 171 et 

seq. 
Saint-Priest, Vicomte de, 299, 302, 303, 

310 
Saint-Priest, Vicomtesse de, 302, (cited) 

302. 303 
Sala, Adolphe, 303, 310 
Salis, Comte de, 265 
Sanfelice, Luisa di, 11, 12 
San Nicandro, Prince of, 2, 34, 36, 41 
Sassenay, Marquis de, 119 
Scarsdale, Lord, 289 
Schonen, Baron, 276, (cited) 267 
Scott, Sir Walter, 291, 292 
Semonville, Marquis de, 264, 265 
Serent, Due de, 61, 62 
Seze, Raymond, Comte de, 57, 217 
Sichel, Mr. Walter, 10 
Simeon, 16 

Soissons, Bishop of, 223 
Sorel, Agnes, 65 and note, 2IO 
Soubriard, 137 
Souchais, Bruneau de la, 329 
Stanislaus Leczinski, King of Poland, 

191 
Stern, Daniel. See Comtesse d'Agoult 
Stuart of Rothesay, Lady, 245 
Suchet, Marechal, Due de Albufera, 138, 

151, 178, 188 



Talleyrand, 49, 59, 1 1 1 note, 1 1 2, 290 

Talon, Omer, 203 

Tanucci, Bernardo, 2, 4 

Tilegraphe, the, 73 

Tet?ips, the, 77 

Thalin, Mgr., Bishop of Strasbourg, 
235. 236 

Thiebault, Baron, (cited) 79, 94 

Thiers, Louis Adolphe, becomes Minister 
of the Interior, 336 ; his part in the 
July Revolution, 336; determines to 
make the apprehension of the Duchesse 
de Berry his personal affair, 337 ; 
receives an anonymous letter, 337 ; his 



secret meeting ■with the informer Deutz 
in the Champs-Elysees, 337 ; confers 
with him at the Ministry of the 
Interior, 338 ; his odious bargain with 
him for the betrayal of the Duchesse 
de Berry, 340 ; sends him to Nantes, 
340 ; his instructions to the prefect of 
the Gironde concerning the Duchesse 
de Berry, 351 ; indignation of the 
princess against him, 353 ; attempts to 
justify her detention to the Chamber 
of Deputies, 354 ; resigns the Ministry 
of the Interior and accepts that of 
Commerce and Public Works, 360 and 
note ; his advice to Louis- Philippe 
concerning the Duchesse de Berry, 362, 

^363 

Thirria, E., 336, (cited) 290, 296, 302, 

3°3, 352, 373 
Times, the, 287, 288 
Torre, Mile, della, 231 
Tour, Comte de la, 34 
Tour, Comtesse de la, 15, 17, 27, 34, 41 
Tourzel, Abbe, 85 note 
Tourzel, Mgr. Louis, 85 note 
Tribune, the, 358 
Turenne, Vicomte de, 65 



U 



Urban VIII., Pope, 85 
Utrecht, Treaty of, 1 note 
Uzes, Due d', 217 



V 



Valayer, M., 58 

Valence, Vicomte de, 105 

Vallet, M., 349 

Vathaire, Madame de, 180, 181 

Vauchon, Mile., 231 

Vaudreuil, Comte de, 83 

Verac, Marquis de, 269 

Victoire de France, Madame, 8 and note 

Victor Amadeus II., Duke of Savoy, 

King of Sardinia, I 
Victor Amadeus III., Duke of Savoy, 

King of Sardinia, 62 
Victor Emmanuel I., King of Sardinia, 

64 
Victor, Marechal, 188 
Victorine, Mile, (mistress of the Due de 

Berry), 76 note 
Vieil-Castel, (cited) 164 



R D -2.16 



INDEX 



39i 



Villari, Professor, II 

Villate, Major, 93 

Villele, Comte de, 208, 212, 236, 242 

Villeneuve, Abbe de, 58 

Villeneuve, Bargemont, Vicomte de, 308, 

313 
Vitrolles, Baron de, 264, 265, (cited) 
206 note 



W 



Wellington, Duke of, 101, 190, 286, 288, 

290 
William I., King of Holland, 335, 373 
William III., King of England, 287 
William IV., King of England, 281, 286 



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